Changing Destiny
by ForeverUnited
Summary: A new character comes into play. At the start of Harry's fifth year he gains a new ally that will change the wizarding world forever. New friendships are formed; romance blossoms and betrayals are discovered. Major Character Bashing, Hogwarts Reads Books
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** – Hello all welcome to my new story. This is a repost up to chapter 14 from my other account AngelsDecent. I will be moving my stories here to this new account so I can continue them. This story was deleted during the time when someone took it upon themselves to complain about everyone and have their stories delete. I believe enough time has passed now that I can continue with my much loved story, as well as the others.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Voldemort sat on his high backed throne surveying his followers, the room was darkly lit giving off a sinister feeling. Tonight was a full death eater meeting everyone was present. Nagini slithered into view coiling her body around her master's legs for warmth. Slowly he ran his fingers over her silky smooth scales. He watched them all carefully his eyes lingered on Bellatrix who was shaking with excitement by just being here; he shook his head slightly and was about to speak when Blinky dressed in a dishevelled tea towel his favourite house elf appeared looking terrified. He raised an eyebrow at her waiting for her to speak.

"Master please forgive me, you is having a visitor sir." Blinking said holding her ears.

Voldemort frowned, "Send whomever it is in."

The death eaters glanced at each other confused and turned slightly to face the door listening as the sound of heels clinked on the marble floor growing louder and louder until the doors burst open. The most beautiful women strode into view; her robes hugged her figure and were blood red setting off her pale skin. Chocolate coloured hair loosely curled flowed down her back she was a vision of sheer beauty. His eyes quickly shot to his followers as they all dropped to the floor bowing not to him but the women who entered. A single thought ran through his mind just who was this woman.

The woman stopped in the middle of the room and smiled softly at the death eaters and frowned at Voldemort who simply sat there watching her.

"You show me a great insult by not bowing Tom." She spoke softly sending shivers through everyone present.

"I am Lord Voldemort I bow to know one." He sneered at her, who does this woman thinks she is.

Bellatrix looked fearful at her master, "Hush master you must not insult her."

Voldemort snapped at her, "How dare you interrupt," he lifted his wand and shouted "crucio" and watched as she screamed in pain. However instantly the spell was lifted and the woman was glowing in rage.

"First you insult me and then have the nerve to torture in my present how dare you. Bella child come to me." She glared daggers at Voldemort who felt fear for the first time in his life.

Bellatrix shook and slowly made her way over to her carefully not looking at her. She stopped in front of the women and curtsied, "Your majesty." Voldemort frowned at this.

She sighed and lifted Bella's chin so she was looking at her and smiled, "Close your eyes child and I will fix you." Bella closed her eyes and shifted slightly wondering what the hell was going on.

Placing her hands on Bella's temples she chanted softly as a golden glow surrounded Bella. Everyone in the room was frozen in amazement watching carefully. Voldemort watched frowning at all that was occurring and was growing more and more frustrated.

Slowly the light faded and the women removed her hands stepping back with a wide smile on her face as she watched Bella carefully.

Bella's eyes flew open she felt great finally free, "Ma'am thank you but what did you do?"

"I fixed you Bella, your mind is now healed and I also gave you a gift of being able to have children." She finished.

Bella's eyes flew to her husbands who had tears trailing down his cheeks. She turned back and burst into tears and bowed again, "Thank you, thank you, you have given me the thing I wanted most however will I repay you."

"Sweet child there will come a time when I will call you and I will have an offer for you and your husband but until then enjoy the gift I have given for it is not given lightly." She smiled and nodded and turned her attention back to Voldemort as he was glowing with anger for being ignored for so long.

"So are you planning to tell me who you are?" He growled

"Well since you asked so politely," She strode forward smirking standing in front of him as everyone stepped back in fear, "I am your Queen my name is Lady Rosewood, the daughter of Fate and Death immortal forever to rule the magical world."

"How have I never heard of you?" He frowned and asked surely he would have known about her.

"You people are the reason I hate the Muggle raised," she sighed rubbing her temples and conjured a throne in front of his and took a seat before continuing, "If you had noticed all your follows know who I am because they are wizard raised and it is not our fault that you join our world and not bothered to open a history book."

He glared at her, "Why have you come?"

"To strike a deal, I am taking Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy with me." She paused hearing someone gasp and assumed it was the boy's father before continuing. "You see I am in need of an heir for when I travel between the worlds and will also be setting up and all magical country so I am here to give you an ultimatum you leave my people alone while I move them and I will allow you full control of magical Britain and will be more than happy when you kill that medalling old fool Dumbledore." More gasps were heard at this. "He is the reason you were forced back to the orphanage even though many families wanted to adopt you, he needed a new dark wizard and he is also the reason you went after the Potter's over a fake prophecy." Many people began growling at this especially Severus. "Dumbledore's greatest crime is using Harry Potter as a weapon sending him back to his relatives who abused him and made him sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. He allowed for his godfather to be wrong fully imprisoned and now is a prisoner in his own home. He is even encouraging the link between you both. His great plan is to allow you to kill Harry because he is a Horcrux and then he would stride out and kill you himself." Sophia leaned back and surveyed him over her entwined hands.

Severus stood in the crowed his hands balled into fists, he had ran to Dumbledore to save them and all this time he had be used and that poor child.

Voldemort sat frozen it all made sense everything that has happened was because of Dumbledore wanted it to. He wanted to rip him apart with his bare hands for ruining his life. "I agree to your deal, Dumbledore will be dead and the boys left alone."

"Oh before I forget," she waved her hand and every one of his Horcruxes appeared in his lap. "These belong to you I suggest you gain some sanity and absorb them considering torturing your supporters is ridiculous."

"But how did you get these." He stuttered shocked.

"You are forgetting my father is death and he does not approve I would have destroyed them but I am giving you a choice. I will be removing Potters if you absorb these ones I will put the Potter Horcrux in a new object and send it you. However if you do not I will destroy them. The choice is yours to make." She smiled sweetly at him watching him blush under her gaze.

He pondered his choices for awhile even though he only had two options being mortal or gaining his humanity back, humanity was the lesser of two evils in his opinion. "I will absorb them later while I am alone." He nodded to her.

"Good because I shall know if you haven't. I think that is all for now, Bella shouldn't be allowed on missions for 2 weeks while her magic and mind re adjust. She won't be as powerful as she was that was the price she had to pay for being able to conceive. Although boosting our numbers rather than killing them is a plus in my mind. I shall take my leave, goodbye Tom." She stood vanishing her chair before heading towards the door. She paused in front of Lucius Malfoy, "I suggest you bring your wife to Hogwarts tomorrow there shall be fireworks. Oh and Severus do not report any of this to Dumbledore he will know tomorrow anyway." With that she turned and strode out of the door leaving everyone dumb founded behind her.

**A/N – I hoped you like it. I am looking for a Beta for this story since I can't spell and I know my grammar sucks. Sorry I do try my best so please don't leave rude reviews about this. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Harry Potter sat in the great hall pushing around the food on his plate. Anybody who looked at him knew that something was wrong. After all it was Halloween and something always bad happened on Halloween. Plus it was the anniversary of his parent's death but no one seems to care about that. Ron and Hermione sat constantly nagging him to cheer up and eat something. Umbridge sat at the staff table smiling sweetly at the misery on the boys face oh yes she loved watching him suffer. The great hall was packed with students this morning everyone else seemed to be chatting happily no one noticed the glares the headmaster was receiving from the resident potion master.

Suddenly the doors to the great hall burst open and in strode a figure completely covered in the grey robes used by the unspeakable's. The hall froze wondering who the stranger was; Dumbledore rose from his chair smiling. "Good morning how may I help you?"

"I am agent Rose and I am here for Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter. Gentleman please come here," the unspeakable spoke.

"Where and why are you taking them." Dumbledore asked frowning

"That is none of your concern headmaster." The unspeakable smirked under her hood.

"Well I request to be present they are minors." Dumbledore said starting to get irritated.

"Headmaster you are forgetting your place as an unspeakable you have no control over these matters now gentleman follow me." With that the unspeakable turned and headed out of the room. Harry, Draco and Neville glanced at each other before running after the figure much to Dumbledore's annoyance. As soon as they left the doors to the great hall closed and locked allowing no one to leave.

oOoOoOoOo

The unspeakable stood in front of the tapestry on the seventh floor and walked in front of it three times making the request,

_I need a comfortable room where no one will disturb us._

A door appeared which was opened and the four of them walked in. The room had a roaring fireplace with a throne chair and a large sofa there was drinks and snacks set up on a table, it had a homey feel to it.

The unspeakable sat down on the throne and motioned for the boys to take a seat on the sofa. They quickly took their seats shivering slightly in fear and wondering why they had been taken.

Slowly removing the robe Sophia smiled as Draco and Neville instantly dropped to their knee while Harry sat confused on the sofa. She was about to speak when Draco pulled Harry down so he was kneeling as well. Sophia smiled at this there was hope for them after all.

"Welcome gentleman I have much to discuss with you and not a lot of time in which to do it please make yourselves comfortable." She smiled at them

"It is an honour to meet you your majesty." Draco said and Neville nodded in agreement to nervous to speak while Harry simply didn't understand what was happening.

"Thank you. Harry I see you have no clue who I am, this is why we hate the Muggle raised you don't bother to read anything about our world before you join us." She said sighing.

Draco smirked and Harry looked ashamed and looked down at his hands.

"Harry my name is Lady Sophia Rosewood I am Queen of the magical world, immortal as my father is Death and my mother is Fate. Now the reason I am here is because you are all being manipulated by Dumbledore and I will be taking you with me for special training at the palace." She finished watching their reactions. Draco was glowing he was going to have the honour of going to the palace. Harry looked furious how had he been manipulated and Neville just didn't understand what was happening.

Sophia sighed this wasn't going to be easy, "Draco stand for me I will tell you first since yours is less than the other two." Draco stood and glanced and the others in confusion. Sophia waved her hand and watched as he glowed red. "I thought so; you have loyalty charms geared towards Slytherin and Severus. A powerful hate charm towards Harry and a general hate charm towards Gryffindor, oh and a 20% magical core block."

Draco looked outraged, "Who did this to me? When my father hears about this." he growled.

"Dumbledore, I can remove them for you if you like and your parents already know I sent them all letters explaining this morning." She said softly.

"Please I feel tainted." Draco said still angry. Sophia waved her hand over Draco who glowed and fell back into his chair feeling light headed. "You will feel fine in a minute after you have adjusted, Neville your turn please stand," she said.

Neville rose shaking and glanced at Harry who looked at him reassuringly. He braced himself. Sophia waved her hand over him as he glowed bright red. Taking a deep breath she began, "Neville you have a strong fear compulsion towards Professor Snape, Loyalty towards Gryffindor and obedience to the headmaster. Oh and a 60% power block," she finished.

They all gasped, "please remove it all." Neville said quietly. Sophia nodded and waved her hand; Neville glowed and fell back on his seat just like Draco had done. "Thank you I feel so free." Sophia simply smiled at him and turned to Harry who had now risen knowing what was to come. Sophia waved her hand and watched as he glowed an even brighter red than the other two combined. Neville and Draco both gasped seeing this and Harry looked concerned. "Harry you have a compulsion to hate Draco and Professor Snape, Obedience towards the headmaster, loyalty towards the headmaster, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and a mild compulsion towards Ginny Weasley that would grow into a love compulsion over the year so it would look natural. There is also an 80% block on your magic." Sophia watched Harry in concern as he grew angrier by the second.

"WHY THE HELL WOULD HE DO THIS TO US." Harry shouted

"Shhh calm child I will remove them and explain why." Sophia said

Harry calm slightly but was still furious. Sophia waved her hand and watched as the glow surrounded Harry and he fell back on the chair. "Harry there is one more thing your scar is a Horcrux which is a piece of the Dark Lords soul that's why you have a connection I will remove it so sit still ok."

Harry simply nodded looking terrified. Sophia rose and walked to stand behind Harry she held a Goblin ruby encrusted blade in one hand and touched his scar in the other. Harry began screaming as the Horcrux moved from the scar to the blade. With a wave of her hand the blade disappeared and arrived on Voldemort's lap. She passed Harry a pain relief potion and a pepper up potion.

"Drink them and boys all of you take a drink this is going to be a long story and I do not want any interruptions until I have finished." Sophia said.

All three of them grabbed butterbeers and some snacks and got comfortable and waited for her to start her story.

Sophia took a deep breath and started, "Draco I am here to stop you from becoming a death eater I have seen your future and it is terrible especially after the Dark Lord falls. The only reason you become one is because you want to save your mother and the Dark Lord wants to punish you for your father getting thrown into prison. Now I hope with the spells removed you boys can become friends and help each other grow." Draco simply nodded frowning.

"Now Neville and Harry your reason is a hell of a lot worse but I must start at the beginning. There was a prophecy made by the fraud professor Trelawney to Dumbles that referred to the both of you it said,

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..." _

—_Prophecy made to _Albus Dumbledore by Sybill Trelawney

"Now Snape over heard the first line and ran to tell his master. However when he realised it was you he was after Harry he informed Dumbledore. Snape was friends with your mother when they was younger they grew up together. Anyway the prophecy is a fake the reason you both don't have parents is because of Dumbledore he set everything up he needed a weapon and one of you would do it. He ignored your parents will Harry you and Neville should have been raised as brothers your mothers were each of yours godmother." She paused and saw that all three of the boys had tears running down their cheeks she waved her hand so tissues would appear and a blanket was placed over them for comfort. She continued with the story.

"So while announcing to the world that they were all safe allowing your parents to come out of hiding Neville he also told them that he was sending Harry away for safety from rouge death eaters. Neville I am afraid he led Bella to your parents and is also the reason she is insane in the first place after he modified her memories. I have fixed her now so she is completely sane it will take her awhile to get used to. Several people came forward to take you in Harry including McGonagall and your gran Neville but he refused them all. He banned Remus from contacting you playing the werewolf card and had Sirius locked up so you Harry would be the abused child that would see Dumbles as a Grandfather when he came to rescue you."

"Every year you have been through hardship and it was all set up by Dumbles everything that has happened can be blamed on him. He created Voldemort forced to go to an orphanage and bullied him making others mistrust him; he needed a new dark lord to increase his popularity. All for the greater good."

"Harry sweetheart I want you to remove the glamour's and your robe so we can see." Sophia said softly finishing her story. Neville and Draco glanced at each other in concern.

Harry slowly stood up shaking in fear he didn't want to be rejected and called a freak, he had tears running down his cheeks. Slowly he dropped the glamour's and removed his robes revealing cuts and bruises all over him and his ribs were clearly visible along with scars saying "freak" and one of the cross burned into his flesh.

"Oh Harry you poor child." Sophia said and Draco much to everyone's shock stood up and wrapped his arms around Harry rubbing small circles in his back. "Everything will be ok I'll protect you everyone will pay for what they have done." Draco said slowly guiding Harry back down to his seat where Neville and Draco put their arms around him.

"Boy's I want you to take Luna Lovegood under your protection, her whole house bullies her and hides all of her clothes and shoes that's why she dresses how she does. The reason why she seems a bit strange is because when she was 9 she saw her mother die and withdrew into herself she is all alone and has no friends I want you boys to take her in as the little sister you never had." Sophia said and watched as all three nodded looking sad about Luna.

"Harry I can fix your body once we arrive at the palace but until then put the glamour's back on and I can tell you my plan." Sophia said

"Ok." Harry said quietly he looked so vulnerable.

"Harry I'm afraid Ron, Ginny and Hermione are not your friends Dumbledore has been paying them to befriend you and control you and Mrs Weasley is planning on supplying Ginny with Love potion so she can get her hands on the Potter fortune." Sophia said dropping the last bombshell

"How dare they." Harry muttered looking angry.

"Harry you still have friends who love you no matter what ok." Neville said and Draco nodded in agreement as Harry smiled at them both.

"I'm so proud of you three. Now I am taking you to the Island where you will study and be trained to rule together the new wizarding country I am creating. You see I spend my time between here and the other realm with my parents so I am training you as my Heirs." Sophia smiled at them

All three of their jaws hung open in shock.

"I have made a deal with Voldemort that he will leave my people alone to move and he can control Britain. I forgot to mention that the Island is unplottable and can never be found but that's beside the point." She smiled as the boys burst out laughing.

"The island is slightly bigger that England and is completely hidden. No Muggle will ever step on my Island it is for magical people only. I will be taking Hogwarts with us and there will be a day school for children starting at age 6 and also an orphanage I plan to steal all the magical newborns." Sophia said leaning back waiting for the last line to sink in.

"You can't do that what about their parents." Harry said outraged

"Their parents won't know they will be switched with a Muggle baby instead it will be a win win. The magical child grows up in the magical world and is adopted by a family who will love it. Look at the people who raised you, Muggles don't understand us and we should not mix. Our world should be kept a secret."

"Oh ok I understand I wish this was in place when I was a child." Harry muttered

Sophia decided to continue, "So there will be a brand new all new magical community. We will be handing out questionnaires and hand picking the people who move with us. This can all be decided when we move to the Island and set everything up."

The all nodded their agreement at this plan.

"Now first we are going to have some fun here ok." Sophia smirked

"What do you have in mind?" Draco asked finally smiling.

"Well you see I have books 1-5 detailing Harry's life up until the end of this year that I'm going to give to Umbridge to prove Harry's lies," here she paused and winked causing them to chuckle. "I will also be airing Dumbledore's secrets; I'll offer her a condensed version as well so we don't have to listen to everything. I'm also going to tell them there future and how awful it will become." Sophia smiled happily at them.

Neville said up straight it was time for some pay back. "Let's do it."

"Ok boy's I want you to stay behind me and stay quiet and do exactly as I say and above all remain calm so my plan works oh and do not look Dumbledore in the eyes he will read your mind." Sophia said pulling on her clock to cover her features and headed back to the great hall with the boys trailing after her.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Down in the great hall Dumbledore was trying to open the doors to allow everyone to leave for morning classes. Everyone was growing nervous as time went on. Hermione and Ron were looking at each other and wondering why Harry had been taken. Half an hour passed and still Dumbledore could not open them. Giving up he made his way back to the head table, taking a seat he sighed and spoke to the room.

"I'm afraid for now we are stuck here, make yourselves comfortable and talk amongst yourselves." He finished.

The teachers glanced at each other in concern and started muttering about what was happening. Professor Snape leaned back in his chair and was smirking at Dumbledore's misfortune he couldn't wait to see what this beautiful woman had planned next.

An hour later the great hall burst open and the unspeakable strode in with the boy's following closely behind.

oOoOoOoOo

Sophia smirked standing outside the great hall, pulling her clock down lower so she was hidden. She turned to Harry and handed him papers, "When you sit down sign these they are adoption papers so Dumbledore can no longer control you and you won't have to go to the Dursleys again." Harry hugged her in thanks.

"Show time boy's" she said while pushing the doors open and walking in. She watched as everyone's head quickly turned towards the doors and Dumbledore's face looked like he was about to explode.

"Ah I see you are all here good." Sophia said.

"What is the meaning of this you take them away and lock us in here you have no right to do this." Dumbledore shouted losing his temper.

Sophia smirked under her hood before speaking, "I think old man you will find I do have the authority here."

"How dare you talk to the headmaster like that?" Professor McGonagall shouted.

"I dare because it's true." Sophia said undoing her clock and allowing it to drop to the floor she smiled and watched as the teachers and the majority of the students began moving dropping to their knees and muttering "your majesty" while bowing their heads.

"It's a pleasure to have you here your majesty," Dumbledore spoke still kneeling on the floor.

"You weren't saying that a minute ago I see the standards at Hogwarts have slipped since a quarter of your hall is still standing such disrespect it's disgraceful. I suggest you kneel now!" She growled at them before composing herself and smirking inwardly. "Typical the Muggle raised join our world and don't even bother opening a book and you wonder why the majority of the wizarding world doesn't want you." She smiled watching Hermione turn bright red in rage and the Slytherin's were glowing with pride.

"Something to say girl?" Sophia asked staring at her.

Hermione looked up letting the rage get the better of her, "Yes there is nothing wrong with being Muggle raised and who are you?" The hall gasped and glared at her making her shift uncomfortably

"Well child you are a rude one aren't you. I suggest you have one of Madam Umbridge's special detentions when we are done here." She smiled at Umbridge who was glowing with happiness. Hermione visibly shuddered.

"For the idiots who cannot be bothered to study our world and expect us to act like Muggles I am Lady Sophia Rosewood Queen of the magical world. I am the daughter of Death and Fate immortal forever to rule this world and I have grown fed up with how it is progressing in Britain." Sophia said glaring at Hermione who was now looking at the floor.

"You may rise and take your seats I have a few guests arriving," she paused and turned to the boys. "All three of you go sit at the Slytherin table, ok near the staff table and I will join you over there." She smiled at them as they quickly ran over much to everyone's shock and Dumbledore's outrage.

"Miss Luna Lovegod come here." Sophia smiled as a small terrified girl approached her.

Luna was shaking why did the Queen want her what had she done, she curtsied standing in front of her. "Your majesty"

Sophia bent down and lifted the girls chin to look her in the eye. "Child I have seen how you suffer I want to help you. Please go sit with Harry, Draco and Neville they will look after you I promise that the Ravenclaw's will no longer bully you ok. So much for the smartest house," Sophia smiled and nudged Luna in the right direction before standing and glaring at the Ravenclaw's.

Luna quickly ran off and took a seat in between Harry and Neville they were smiling at her making her even more confused.

"Considering you are the smartest house you are all a disgrace to Hogwarts you should be ashamed bullying a younger student and stealing her clothing. I think 50 points each lost for those who bullied Luna. It looks like Ravenclaw are out of the running for the house cup. Pity," Sophia smirked

Sophia turned to the doors hearing footsteps approach, "Ah my guest had arrived."

Standing in the doorway was the strangest group of people. Minister Fudge, Amelia Bones, Kingsley Shackbolt, Tonks, Mad Eye Moody, All of the Weasley's, Remus Lupin and dog, the Malfoy's and Madam Longbottom. As soon as they spotted Sophia they all dropped there to their knees.

"Welcome please rise and find some seats." Sophia smiled and made her way to stand in front of Dumbledore. Sophia stopped and looked at him while he shifted in his seat.

"Time for you to pay Albus." Sophia whispered quietly enough for him to hear and freeze in shock. Severus was trying hard not to laugh seeing this.

Sophia smiled and turned to the hall, "The reason I am here is to expose the lies from the so called leader of the light. Today we will be reading about Harry Potters first five years in the magical world. The reason the Dark Lord has come to power is because Dumbledore created him he modelled Tom Riddle so he could have new fame as the leader of the light. He arranged for the Potters and Longbottom's dismiss. There was a prophecy created that Voldemort believed and went after the Potters it was a fake. Dumbledore ignored the Potter will and hid poor Harry with magic hating Muggles who beat and starved him. (Everyone gasped and turned to Harry hearing this.) That's right all, your boy who lived is not going to be your saviour. Once we are done here Harry, Draco, Neville and Luna will be moving to the palace, forever leaving Britain."

Sophia watched as the news sank in. "You can't abandon us!" A Ravenclaw shouted.

Sophia smirked at them, "Harry Potter is no longer your weapon Britain will be left to the dark lord it's about time to stand up for yourselves and stop following Dumbledore like sheep."

Sophia smiled sweetly and waved her hand everyone in the room was now wearing a white outfit even the dog. "Please stand and move to the edges of the room," she waited for everyone to stand and move they were all looking terribly confused. Smirking she continued and started chanting everyone watched in amazement as the Gryffindor table split in half and separated and the Ravenclaw and Slytherin tables joined together. Waving her hand again everyone's outfits changed colour some were wearing bright pink, some red, others black and finally the majority wore green.

"Can everyone wearing pink please sit on the left hand Gryffindor table, those wearing red sit on the other end. Those wearing black please sit at the Hufflepuff table and finally everyone in green sit at the large table." Sophia said watching as everyone went at their correct table she smirked seeing Dumbledore in a bright pink outfit with a black strip down the centre.

Finally after everyone settle Sophia braced herself watching Harry carefully, she waved her hand and a simple word hovered over each table. The pink table said "Betrayers", the red table said "Prison", the black table said "Dead" and the green table said "alive."

Taking a deep breath she spoke, "This will be your future by the end of Harry's seventh year, the majority of you die in the battle of Hogwarts." Sophia sunk back on the golden throne she had conjured and watched carefully.

Harry screamed and jumped up from his seat and ran to the death table throwing his arms around the dog and crying his eyes out. "I can't lose you both I only just found you. Please padfoot, mooney don't leave me you're the only parents I have." Harry whispered quietly. Remus hearing this burst into tears and wrapped his arms around his cub. "Shh Harry we won't leave you and you have Lady Sophia to protect you. Harry you are loved." He ran his hand through Harry's thick black hair ruffling it up and rubbing small circles in his back. Sophia shifted and looked at the other people in the room who were crying and comforting their loved ones.

Her gaze finally landed on Severus and her heart broke slightly watching him. Everyone else was being comforted and he was just sat there all alone tears trailing down his cheeks. Sophia couldn't watch him any longer so standing up she strode over and wrapped her arms around him, she felt him stiffen underneath her. "Severus you are not alone and I won't let this happen to you Voldemort has you killed I want you to move to the Island with us and become just a potion master no teaching the pay is good." She whispered to him sending shivers down his spine.

"Thank you Ma'am I defiantly want to leave." Severus said still looking down.

Sophia turned his face so he was looking at her, gently wiping his tears and waving her hands so his clothes turn back to normal. "Come sit by me I could use another pair of eyes watching the boys and call me Sophia." She turned and walked back to her throne conjuring another next to her for him to sit.

Once she was seated she clapped her hands and turned towards the pink table with everyone else turning to look there. Mrs Weasley, Ron, Ginny and Hermione were bright red with anger. "As you can see the blood traitors are living up to their name. Mr Weasley I suggest you boot them out of the family. Ron, Hermione and Ginny have all been paid by Dumbledore to be his friend and spy on him. Along with all the compulsion and loyalty charms and power blocks they placed on him. Mrs Weasley has been slipping Harry love potion since the start of the year she wants the Potter gold."

Every started shouting abuse at the pink table the other Weasley's were distraught with the betrayal that they had just faced.

Sophia clapped her hands drawing everyone's attention, waving her hands again five books appeared floating in mid air with another wave they merged together and shrunk making one compacted book. She waved her hands and the tables disappeared and sofas, pillows and beanbags appeared allowing everyone to sit. Finally she finished by changing everyone back except the pinks.

"Now everyone get comfortable and we can start to read Luna will you do the honours and read the first chapter." Sophia smiled and watched as everyone grabbed seats and Luna came forward and sat on a pillow leaning against Sophia's legs and opened the book to begin reading.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Luna shifted getting comfortable and began reading,

**The Boy Who Lived **

Harry sighed and began rubbing his temples. Everyone looked at him confused didn't he like his fame.

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. **

"Well they sound interesting," Katie Bell said

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. **

"She hasn't change much," Severus muttered quietly.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere. **

The twins burst out laughing having met him.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters. **

"What's wrong with the Potter's," Remus growled while Harry just glared at the book.

**Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be.**

"That's not even a word!" Cho Chang exclaimed.

The Ravenclaws all nodded in agreement.

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"A child like what exactly?" Several people yelled at once.

"Harry's much better than Dudykins!" Fred yelled causing everyone to burst out laughing.

**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his highchair.**

"What a horrid child," Minerva McGonagall whispered to Pomona Sprout who nodded with agreement she couldn't believe that Albus left Potter with these people.

**None of them notices a large tawny owl flutter past the window.**

The adults in the room all bowed their heads they realised what day this was.

**At half-past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

"Brat!" Said most of the student body and several teachers.

'**Little tyke,' chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

"Little!" Fred and George snorted at the same time.

Bill and Charlie were growing bright red trying hard not to laugh

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map.**

"I know who that is!" exclaimed Fred.

"Really who?" George stage whispered.

"Professor Minnie!" They yelled in unison.

"Weasley! Do not call me that," shouted McGonagall.

Fred and George looked at each other and smiled while winking at Harry who was crying tears of laughter.

**For a second, Mr Dursley didn't realize what he had seen – then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. **

"Right that's it. Stupid muggle," Draco said quietly making Harry and Neville laugh.

**Mr Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the ca t in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said **_**Privet Drive**_** — no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps **_**or**_** signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind.**

"Short attention span that one," Ernie MacMillan said to those around him

**As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day. But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"That's not strange!" Seamus yelled.

"They're muggles, they don't wear cloaks," Dean told him.

"Oh right. I forgot." He said sheepishly

Dean just snickered

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it.**

"This guy is an idiot." Blaise Zabini said from the Slytherin table.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

"These drills must be very interesting." Said Colin Creevley. "Or he's got a one track mind."

'He's got a one track mind," muttered Harry.

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime. **

"What? How do they get their mail?" Asked Astoria Greengrass.

"Muggles deliver their mail by post," a muggleborn answered.

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning.**

**He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"Wow what a productive-"

"Life this guy has-"

"I'm jealous! What about you Fred?"

"I'm very jealous George!"

The students started laughing and a few of the students joined in.

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"What? Did you read that right? He actually walked?" Harry asked.

Luna looked down at the book and nodded, "the nargles must have got him."

"Yeah sounds about right." Harry said.

**to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"Ah that's more like it," said Harry, snorting in amusment.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"**The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard —"**

" — **yes, their son, Harry —"**

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"I wish," said Harry.

A few people gave him weird looks.

Draco and Neville began whispering comforting words to him.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone,**

"A what? This is the second time a telephone has been mentioned?" Asked a second year Slytherin.

"It is a device that Muggles use for talking to each other over long distances. A bit like Floo calling except they can't see each other's face," explained the Muggle Studies teacher Charity Burbage.

The second year blushed and thanked the teacher.

**and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name.**

"In the Muggle world it might be, but here in the wizarding world it is," explained Percy Weasley pompously.

**He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. **

"He doesn't even know your name?" Shrieked the girls on his Quidditch team.

Harry shook his head, "I don't think he does I'm boy or freak."

Everyone stared at him so Draco glared at them.

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Harvey Potter pleasure to meet you," Fred said.

"No Fred its Harold Potter," George cried.

Harry sat snickering watching as Mr Weasley smacked them round the head.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if he'd had a sister like that**

_'There was nothing wrong with Lily.'_ Snape thought sadly.

"There was nothing wrong with Lily!" Shouted several professors, Amelia Bones and Remus.

Sophia squeezed Severus's hand softly smiling at him she knew what he was thinking, he smiled back at her.

… **but all the same, those people in cloaks…**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"Poor soul," muttered Anthony Freeman.

"**Sorry," he grunted, **

"I'm surprised he knows the word," mumbled Harry.

The Weasleys boys looked at him in concern.

**as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare,**

"**Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

Those who hadn't already figured out what days this was gasped.

'_Poor Harry.' _Thought Luna as she carried on reading.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"I'm surprised he fit," said Neville laughing.

Harry burst out laughing picturing it.

"Go Neville!" Yelled the Weasley twins.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

"How can they not approve of imagination." Professor Flitwick cried in outrage.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"Were you there all day Minerva?" Asked Pomona.

"Yes," she replied sadly.

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

"Not going to work," the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan all cried.

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"It sounds like you gave him the same look that you normally give us," said Fred.

"Maybe if you two would focus more on school and less on pranks I wouldn't need to look at you two like that," she replied.

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. **

"No but it is normal McGonagall behaviour," Harry whispered to Neville who bit back a laugh.

**Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!").**

"That isn't something to be proud of!" Mrs Malfoy said.

Everyone else nodded in agreement.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"That isn't even funny," said Lee Jordan.

"**Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

"Hey Tonks is that your dad?" Remus asked looking over at her.

"Yeah it is," she said blushing.

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

"I'm honestly surprised he put all of that together," Harry stated to general amusement.

"The stupid muggle actually connected the dots on his own." Draco said as well if this idiot could what about the rest of them. Several people in the room were also thinking this over.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously.**

"Brave isn't he," Bill snorted

**"Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

Harry glared at the book.

Severus was taking deep breaths trying not to get angry, he felt Sophia squeeze his hand again and it was nice he smiled at her and blushed when she looked at him. What the hell was wrong with him, he shook his head turning back to listen to Luna.

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"**

"**So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"She doesn't seem very nice," whispered Colin to his brother Dennis.

"**Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… her crowd."**

Most of the student and adults looked offended at that.

"Her crowd! Her crowd!" Pansy shrieked, "Who does that filthy Muggle think she is!"

To everyone's amazement and to the shock of the Slytherin's Harry was nodding in agreement.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

_'How could his own family not know his name!'_ This was the general thought in the room.

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

Many glares were sent at the book.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. **

"I definitely couldn't of sat there that long." Several people said.

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

"What were you waiting for professor?" asked Katie Bell

"I'm sure you'll find out soon Miss Bell," answered McGonagall.

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"There is nothing wrong with being a wizard!" the majority of the hall shouted.

Many people glared at the book.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect them…**

**How very wrong he was.**

"I wish he wasn't," muttered Harry

The people who heard frowned at him

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

Several glares were sent his way.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

"He defiantly wasn't welcome." Harry muttered

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him.**

_'Of course it would, the old fool.'_Thought Draco.

**He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

A few of the students looked interested.

**He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, **

"The correct name for it is Deluminator." Dumbledore said

**until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Knew it!" The twins shouted.

"No one doubted you," laughed Harry.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

The hall laughed at that, even some of the Slytherins.

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"No one asked you to sit on a brick wall all day," muttered Nott.

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"Well, you can't blame them Minerva," said Sprout.

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?"**

"No," said Harry and Sophia

"Lies!" Umbridge screeched. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is dead!"

"Excuse me Madam Umbridge but I had a meeting with the Dark Lord yesterday and he is very much alive." Sophia said calmly. She smirked as everyone started to panic and Luna read on.

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"**A what?"**

"**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

Draco rolled his eyes along with several others.

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone —"**

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort."**

The majority of the people flinched.

"It's just a name!" Harry shouted. "You might want to get used to it because I have no problem saying the name so I'm sure it will be in the book more."

Nobody looked happy about that.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"It's because there is no reason to be. It's not like he's going to jump out at you if you say it," Harry said.

Several people nodded in agreement.

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, Voldemort, was frightened of."**

"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"**Only because you're too — well — noble to use them."**

"Not true he isn't powerful enough he can't control the elements or parsel magic." Sophia smirked while Dumbledore looked at the table.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

"Ew!" Many students exclaimed.

"Too much information," sneered Draco.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

Everyone shot Harry pitying looks which he ignored by staring at the table. Draco and Neville were rubbing his back.

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true.**

_'I wish it wasn't true.' Harry thought._

**Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

Several people rolled their eyes.

"**What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters.**

More pitying looks which Harry continued to ignore.

**The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — dead."**

Everyone bowed their heads in respect.

Ron sat sneering at Harry show off he thought.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

"**Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"**

"I still don't want to believe it," muttered Minerva sadly.

Sophia held Severus hand and rubbed small circles on the back with her thumb she knew this chapter would be hard for him and he boys were already soothing Harry. Severus relaxed into the chair growing more comfortable.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone."**

"Another lie by Albus Dumbledore," everyone looked at her confused. "Lilly Potter preformed a ritual that if she willing sacrificed her life then her son would have a shield around him allowing for the AK to repeal off him." Harry smiled proudly hearing his mother saved him.

Everyone else glared openly at Dumbledore who was glaring at Sophia. How dare she reveal his secrets.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"**It's — it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

Harry sighed rubbing his temples.

"**We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"Like he doesn't know," Draco drawled.

"Liar," Harry shouted

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

"**I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"What?" Several people yelled.

"You can't leave him with those horrid people!" Angelina Johnson yelled.

Dumbledore ignored them.

"He ignored the Potter will." Sophia chimed in.

"**You don't mean – you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"I'm taking Professor McGonagall side on this one," said Harry seriously.

Several of the teachers exchanged looks. Just how awful were these people towards Harry?

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

Most people looked shocked that The Boy Who Lived was left with just a letter.

"A letter!" Shouted Neville. "You expect him to understand everything from a letter! We were supposed to be raised as brothers you ruined both our childhoods I hope you rot in Hell."

Everyone gasped hearing Neville of all people shouting this.

"Neville please calm down and take a seat I am proud of you though." Madam Longbottom said.

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future — there will be books written about Harry — every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Unfortunately," muttered Harry.

Neville and Draco sent him small smiles.

"**Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course.** **But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

Sophia spoke up, "That was rather quick of you to agree almost like someone spelled you to comply wouldn't you say."

McGonagall stared open mouthed at her.

"**Hagrid's bringing him."**

"**You think it — wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life." Harry said determindly.

Hagrid beamed at the three of them.

Umbridge looked disgusted._ 'Filthy half-giant.'_

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

Hagrid however glared at Dumbledore for ruin Harry's life.

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"Wicked!" exclaimed half of the Hogwarts male population.

Susan Bones rolled her eyes and muttered, "Boys."

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"You were such a cute baby," said Minerva causing Harry to blush and many boys to snigger.

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

Harry smiled at the mention of his godfather.

The big dog barked happily.

"**No problems, were there?"**

"**No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

Harry blushed scarlet causing many people to chuckle.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

The hall turned as one to look at Harry as he instinctively touched his scar.

"**Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

Harry smiled it was fainter now all thanks to Sophia.

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

"**Even if I could, I wouldn't.**

**Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

"I didn't want to know that," said Draco and many people nodded in agreement.

**Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

"**Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

"**S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —"**

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door.**

**He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. **

"YOU LEFT HIM ON A DOORSTEP IN THE FREEZING COLD." Mrs Malfoy was stood up screaming at him everyone else joined in.

Ripped tomatoes appeared in bowls causing several to pick them up and start throwing them at Dumbledore.

He ended up covered in red which clashed horribly with the pink robes.

Harry, Draco, Neville and Luna were rolling on the floor laughing. Sophia had to turn away to control herself.

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

"How on earth did you sleep through that?" Asked Neville.

Harry shrugged, he has no idea.

"**I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps **

**so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

"**Good luck, Harry," he murmured.**

_'I'm going to need it.' _Thought Harry sadly.

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles,**

"That is a horrible way to wake up," Katie and Angela stated looking irritated.

**nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…**

Everyone was glaring at the book making Luna shift uncomfortable. Sophia began running her fingers through Luna's hair to comfort her.

**He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

Luna closed the book and placed it on the floor, "That's the end of the chapter, you adults disgust me you leave an orphan on a magic hating doorstep in the freezing cold while you go off and party." With that she got up and walked over to the boys.

Sophia glowed with pride while the others looked uncomfortable.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Sophia scanned the room, "so who would like to read next?"

Dean Thomas nervously raised his hand and blushed when Sophia smiled at him and levitated the book over to him.

**"The Vanishing Glass," **read Dean.

"What does that mean?" Lavender asked. "Is that some accidental magic?"

Harry looked up, grinning. "Maybe."

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. **

"Well that doesn't sound very exciting!" exclaimed Fred.

"They're boring remember?" George exclaimed.

The Gryffindor's laughed.

**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. **

Several people snickered at this.

**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets**

The Great Hall roared with laughter.

"Totally true," laughed Harry

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

Many eyebrows were raised at that.

"Isn't Potter still there?" Asked Violet Smith.

"I think so," Daniel Davis replied quietly.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

Snape winced sympathetically and Sophia smiled at him making his stomach do flips.

"**Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Lovely way to start the day," Draco sneered.

Neville was sat trying to control his anger.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"**Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"Quite an admirable memory you've got there Mister Potter," Mad Eye Said

"Thanks sir." Harry said blushing

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"**Nearly," said Harry.**

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.**

"They. Made. You. Cook?" Draco asked. "How old were you when that started?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. As soon as I could reach the stove on a stool."

Draco glared at the book, "they treat you worse than a house elf."

**And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"Duddy?" Fred and George started laughing so hard they fell off the bench.

The rest of the hall snorted.

**Harry groaned.**

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"**Nothing, nothing…"**

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten?**

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them,**

Ron shuddered and Harry smirked at him.

**put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

The silence in the great hall was eerie but Sophia knew it wouldn't last long. She gestured for Harry to come over to her and watched as he quickly ran to her. She pulled him onto her lap and wrapped her arms around him. Rubbing small circles on his back as he cried into her robes so no one could see him, "Harry you are safe and you will have a happy home I promise you." She kissed the top of his head softly and lifted his face and wiped his tears. The only person who saw this interaction was Severus who had a small smile on his face. Sophia rocked him slightly feeling him start to relax while the rest of the room was screaming abuse at Dumbledore.

"You promised me he was safe there." McGonagall roared.

"You should be glad it's not the full moon because I would be tearing you to pieces." Remus growled while snuffles was being held back from attacking him.

Everyone else was furious and were glaring at Dumbledore even the Slytherin's children were a blessing in there world.

Amelia Bones was writing this all done looks like they would be the first Muggles to spend time in Azkaban.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

Everyone glared at the book.

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise**

A few people snorted.

**unless of course it involved punching somebody.** **Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry**

Everyone returned there glares back to the back while Sophia ran her hands through Harry's hair she smiled watching his eyes flutter close. She shifted him slightly and conjured a blanket and wrapped it over him. There were advantages to being small, Draco, Neville, Remus, Snuffles and Severus were all smiling watching Harry fall asleep on Sophia's laugh.

**, but he couldn't often catch him.** **Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"You bet he is!" His Quidditch team shouted

Everyone smiled at them and cheered but soon quietened down noticing Harry asleep. Sophia had cast a silencing charm over him so he wouldn't be disturbed.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard,**

Many growls echoed around the Hall at the reminder. Draco looked furious, snuffles got up and moved to curl by Sophia's legs to be close to his pup.

**but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

Many people nodded looking at Harry they had never thought about it before but he was more like a 10 year old than 15.

Severus sat making a mental list of the medical checks Harry would need and the potions to fix him. He paused watching Sophia sooth him trailing her hand softly across his forehead and through his head.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's,** **and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

Many of the girls were crying hearing about Harry's home life while the adults looked furious.

Sophia was planning a mega shopping trip in Milan for her boys and Luna before they headed to the Island.

**Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair,**

"That would be James' fault," Remus said smiling

**and bright green eyes.**

"Lily," Several people muttered

Snape felt another pang of grief for his old friend.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape**

"Why?" Lavender Brown asked frowning.

**because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

She shook her head, disgusted at the way the muggles treated Harry.

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

Everyone shot Harry strange looks who was still asleep he looked so peaceful without a care in the world.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

"**In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"THEY TOLD YOU YOUR PARENTS DIED IN A CAR CRASH!" Neville shouted in outrage.

Several people growled in outrage.

Remus was furious with himself for allowing his cub to be left with them.

**she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"But how would you learn?" Sue Li from Ravenclaw demanded.

The teachers looked at each other Harry had always been an average student maybe this was why.

_**Don't ask questions **_**— that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Not going to work." The twins sing-songed.

People who heard snickered at them.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.**

Sophia ruffled his hair as several people smiled at the sleeping Harry.

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

Snorts and snickers rang around the Hall as people laughed.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Everyone burst out laughing at that.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

Everyone was shocked that a child would receive thirty-six presents.

"I don't even get thirty-six," Malfoy huffed, frowning.

"Don't even think about it Dragon you won't get that many presents either." Mrs Malfoy said causing a few snickers and Draco to blush.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

The twins and Lee snorted along with the rest of the hall.

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another **_**two **_**presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? **_**Two **_**more presents. Is that all right?"**

"That is no way to raise a child!" Mrs Malfoy said frowning.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

The Ravenclaws looked offended at his math skills.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

Several people rolled there eyes.

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. **"**Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"Dear god, that's encouraging him!" said Madam Pince.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

Several pure-bloods asked "What?" but were shushed by the rest of the students.

"If anyone doesn't understand something muggle related, please feel free to ask me during a break," Charity Burbage told the hall.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

Snuffles and Remus growled.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this.**

Draco and Neville glared at the book.

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"**We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"Do they ever call him by his first name?" Lavender asked upset.

The best friend frowned, "It doesn't sound like it."

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"I don't think you're a slug!" Fred stated seriously.

"Yes, he looks more like a flobberworm." George stated just as seriously.

The people who heard burst out laughing.

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

"**On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"**You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"Of course not! That would make you happy!" Neville growled

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon. **"

**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"**I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"Of course not," Charlie Weasley muttered.

Bill nodded in agreement.

"**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"**

"That's not even legal!" several of the muggleborns cried.

"**That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"**

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Horrible, horrible child." Poppy Pomfrey muttered.

"**Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"Dinky Duddydums!" Fred and George shouted out before bursting out laughing.

"**I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"Despicable child!" McGonagall growled

Several people shot glares at the headmaster.

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. **

Sophia sighed she would have to add day trips to her growing list of giving Harry a childhood.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

Snuffles growled.

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, **"**I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

Everyone turned to look at Harry to see if it was true but he was still asleep but they growled when Sophia nodded it was true.

"**I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

Several people shifted uncomfortably.

Fudge looked around his gaze landed on the Queen which made him more nervous maybe Harry wasn't lying after all. It looked like his time in power was growing shorter.

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"Strange things always happen around Harry," Neville said bursting out laughing

Snickers could be heard all around the room.

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

Sophia glanced down at his hair and ran her hand through it smiling.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

"That's the Potter hair," Remus grinned looking over at Harry and snuffles.

If a dog could grin snuffles was doing just that.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he **_**couldn't **_**explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"A week!" Hannah Abbott shrieked.

"That's inhumane!" Katie Bell yelled.

'_I have treated that boy horrible thinking he was a pampered prince like Dumbledore said and it turns out he had a worst childhood than me,'_ Snape thought bitterly. Severus frowned he was so confused everything he knew was wrong.

McGonagall was looking sadly at Harry tears in her eyes.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).**

Lavender and Parvarti screwed up there faces at this. "ew"

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"Oh good," Neville sighed in relief.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

Many people chuckled at this.

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

The teachers looked at him appraisingly, most shocked at how powerful his accidental magic was, yet his class room performance was so poor compared to this.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.**

Several people snorted at that.

Fred and George were hugging each other crying with laughter.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong.**

Several of the Gryffindor's groaned hearing this.

"What?" Susan Bones asked?

"Something will go wrong Harry jinxed it." They all shouted

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.** **While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.**

"I gather that he likes to complain about Harry a lot," George said thoughtfully.

"I agree dear brother," Fred replied.

**This morning, it was motorcycles.** "… **roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

Neville and Draco groaned.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache:**

"**MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

Several glares were sent at the book.

"Yes they do." Cried Fred and George

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"Idiots," mumbled Justin at the Hufflepuff group

"**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

Sophia sighed pulling him closer to her this little boy had stolen her heart already.

She looked up, "Fred, George Weasley start planning you're visiting the Dursleys"

Both boys looked like Christmas had come early they nodded and high fived each other before pulling out paper and getting to work.

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

The hall burst into laughter.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.**

The hall stopped laughing as everyone turned to glare at the book.

_'I'm going to kill those muggles. I don't care if I get sent back to Azkaban.' _Sirius. Sophia heard him growl and nudged him and glared she didn't want him getting found out yet. Plus she was worried he would want Harry to stay in England.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

Several people groaned

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. **

"Boys," several of the girls muttered

**Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. **

**It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

The Slytherins looked angry at that.

"Filthy muggles," Draco sneered.

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

Fred and George rolled there eyes.

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

"Wonder if he realised he was comparing himself to a snake?" Neville asked amused

Draco smirked, "Doubt it its Harry."

"To true," Neville said laughing. Their parents watched them fondly

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

_**It winked.**_

"But snakes don't even have eyelids! They can't wink!" Terry Boot shouted.

Several people just laughed at him.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

Hermione looked like she wanted to say something but found she had been silenced along with the others at the pink table. Mrs Weasley was bright red with rage.

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

"_**I get that all the time."**_

"**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"You're a parselmouth!" Several first and second years yelled, looking at Harry fearfully.

"There is nothing wrong with parselmouth it's an amazing gift and if practised can be used for Healing its more powerful than general healing spells." Sophia said shutting them up.

"**Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

"**Was it nice there?"**

Several people chuckled looking at Harry.

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

Several people were now looking at Harry amused.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

"'Waddling'," Luna snorted, "I love the descriptions."

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

Growls were sent at the book.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.**

Sophia gazed down at Harry running her hand softly over his cheek she sighed wishing she could fix his injuries.

Severus got up and stood in front of Harry and Sophia holding a parchment, "May I scan him to check his injuries." Sophia nodded removing the blanket and shifting him while he slept.

He waved his wand muttering an incantation and everyone watched as the parchment continued to grow it was a good 5 minutes before it finished. Severus scanned the parchment and a tear rolled down his cheek.

Sophia smiled at him squeezing his hand in affection, "Severus when were finished here I want you to start on the potions to fix everything money is no problem."

"I'll have it done." He said and returned to his seat when Sophia shifted her gaze back to Harry, she had shifted him back and pulled the blanket over him. Several people were openly crying seeing Harry's injuries including Remus and Snuffles.

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

Colin and Dennis Creevey were bouncing in excitement at this.

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

Everyone cheered and started clapping.

"Go Harry!" Dennis and Colin yelled.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, **_**"Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."**_

"Well he sounds lovely." Luna said smiling at the ceiling.

Neville and Draco were smiling at her.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

The Weasley twins snorted.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed,**

Several people chuckled, "guess snakes weren't bad after all"

**but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

Many people groaned at that.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"NO MEALS!" Madam Pomfrey shrieked. "STARVATION IS NOT A PUNISHMENT! ALBUS!" She turned to yell at the Headmaster with the other teachers, each one looking even more furious. Tomatoes appeared again and everyone started chucking them at the pink table.

Snuffles began to growl and stood up and turned to seeing Harry fast asleep in Sophia's lap he gently nudged Harry with his nose and Sophia stroked his head. Luna got up and came to sit next to Snuffles and stroked him calming him down.

Amelia Bones began to write on her clipboard. "These muggles were going to prison."

Tonks' hair turned red as she glared at Dumbledore and Remus had to hold her back.

Several people turned to watch Harry in concern.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

Several people turned to give Harry pitying looks while others glared at the books.

Severus watched Harry and he felt guilty for judging him.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

Many glared at the book.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

The adults turned to Harry mouths hanging open he shouldn't be able to remember that.

"I can't believe he remembers that," Minerva muttered to herself.

Umbridge was glaring at everyone but she knew she couldn't do anything not with Lady Rosewood adopting the brat she growled but least she could punish Granger.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

Hagrid beamed remember the album he gave Harry.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family.**

Remus and Snuffles looked so depressed hearing this James and Lily should be here.

**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"That's rude. Apparating away before Harry could see them," Lisa Turpin said frowning. Her fellow Ravenclaws nodded in agreement.

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That is the end of the chapter." Dean said angrily. "Who would like to read next?"

"I will," Astoria Greengrass said and her sister summoned the book for her.

Many people looked at Harry sadly.

Amelia and the aurors were all planning for when they could arrest the Dursley's.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Astoria began to read, "**The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters." **

"Wait how did this happen we seem to have skipped a large part?" Dean asked and several people nodded in agreement.

"Yes this book only includes the main parts you missed Harry's letter arriving to the cupboard under the stairs you really should check them and then Uncle Vernon looses it and tries to run away they end up in a cabin out at sea, Harry sleeping on the floor, Hagrid breaks down the door gives Dudley a pigs tail. They go to Gringotts and Hagrid picks up a mystery package for Dumbledore three guesses what that is," she paused smirking at Dumbledore who paled. "Then they do some shopping and he bumps in to a boy that reminds him of Dudley." Sophia finished laughing at Draco's reaction whom paled significantly and she motioned for Astoria to read on.

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

Several people paled at this while others glared.

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room, while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him, in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.**

"That would be really lonely," Luna said dreamily still petting snuffles.

**Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.**

Sophia sighed stroking his cheek softly she smiled watching him it must be the first time he had slept in awhile removing the Horcrux must of helped.

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in **_**A History of Magic**_**. His school books were very interesting.**

Fred and George looked at Harry as if he has betrayed them how dare he read.

**He lay on his bed reading late into the night,**

"And it gets worse." Fred groaned.

George hugged him pretending to cry.

**Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.**

"I'm surprised they let her stay." Charlie frowned at the book, "But it shows she likes him."

**Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.**

The majority of the hall nodded in agreement.

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day,** **so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

The hall burst out laughing.

"**Er — Uncle Vernon?" Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

"**Er — I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to , to go to Hogwarts." Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

"Can they not even be civil and answer a simple question?" Susan Bones said.

"Clearly not." Hannah Abbott replied

"**Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?" Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes.**

"Harry speaks part troll." The twins shouted.

"**Thank you."**

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke. **"**Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

"No, they're illegal," The Ravenclaw's said.

**Harry didn't say anything.**

"**Where is this school, anyway?"**

"Scotland," the hall answered.

"**I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.** **"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.**

**His aunt and uncle stared. **"**Platform what?"**

_'You know very well which platform it is Petunia.'_ Snape thought bitterly.

"**Nine and three-quarters."**

"**Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

Glares were sent at the book.

"**It's on my ticket."**

"**Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them.**

Many glares were directed at the book again.

**You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

"**Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

"**Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"But it fits him so well," Fred whined unhappily.

"It would have made him ever so popular," George pleaded.

Many people burst out laughing watching the pair.

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep.**

The adults smiled at this, glad the boy was able to get excited about something.

"I was the same way." All of the muggleborns said.

**He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes, he'd change on the train.**

**He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up.**

"Its sad that he's so anxious to leave home." Lisa realized sadly.

Snape frowned thinking he'd been the same way Sophia grasped his hand and held it in hers smiling at him. "Things will get better for all of us." She whispered to him.

**Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off. **

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him.**

"He's being nice." Remus pointed out worriedly.

"This can't be good." Said Tonks

**Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

"**Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine — platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

**He was quite right, of course.**

**There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

"**Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing.**

"Those, those," Remus was to angry to speak.

"I can't believe they would leave a child there!" Minerva yelled turning her glare to Albus.

"You know you're as much to blame never thought to have someone stand there to help the muggleborns and their parents." Sophia pointed out and smirked when the adults shifted uncomfortably.

**Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone.** **He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters.**

**The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose.**

**Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one.**

**In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.**

Several people were trying to hold back there laughter.

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.**

"Oh no!" several of the adults called out

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"— **packed with Muggles, of course —"**

"seems a stupid thing to say." Mad eye stated

**Harry swung round.**

**The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair.**

"Weasley's." Several people shouted out.

**Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him, and they had an **_**owl**_**.**

Several people chuckled having an owl made you safe.

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

**"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.**

"And here we have Dumbledore's great plan taking effect Mrs Weasley paid to bring Harry over to the light" Sophia spat out.

"**Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mum, can't I go…"**

Glares were sent at the young red head who shifted.

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it — but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

"**Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

"**I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you **_**tell **_**I'm George?"**

The Gryffindor's all burst out laughing shaking their heads in amusement.

"You really think she would be able to tell her children apart." Hannah Abbott said while Susan nodded in agreement.

Molly could be seen glaring at the twins who refused to even look at her.

"**Sorry, George, dear."**

"**Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went. **

Several people rolled there eyes..

**His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone — but how had he done it?**

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there — and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

**There was nothing else for it. **"**Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

"plump women" the hall roared with laughter.

"**Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."** **She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.**

Draco and Neville were snickering behind there hands.

"**Yes," said Harry. "The thing is — the thing is, I don't know how to —"**

"**How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.**

"**Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

"**Er — okay," said Harry. He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.**

Draco and several Slytherins rolled their eyes.

**He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble — **

"pessimist," Neville muttered.

**leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run — the barrier was coming nearer and nearer — he wouldn't be able to stop — the cart was out of control — he was a foot away — he closed his eyes ready for the crash —**

**It didn't come…** **he kept on running… he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said **_**Hogwarts' Express, eleven o'clock**_**. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words **_**Platform Nine and Three-Quarters **_**on it.**

**He had done it.**

The hall started clapping making Sophia burst out laughing.

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every color wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.**

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat.**

**He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

"Neville!" The Gryffindor's cheered causing him to blush.

"**Oh, **_**Neville**_**," he heard the old woman sigh.**

Neville buried his head in his arms.

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

"**Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

"Lee!" The twins cheered.

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

Several of the Gryffindor's shivered knowing that thing was on the loose in there common room.

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

"**Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.**

"You boys offered to help." Bill said shocked

"Hey" they both protested.

Charlie, Bill and Percy all burst out laughing at there reaction while Mr Weasley watched them fondly.

"**Yes, please," Harry panted.**

"**Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

"**Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.**

"**What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

"**Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you —?"**

"**He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.**

"**What?" said Harry.**

"_**Harry Potter**_**." chorused the twins.**

"**Oh, him," said Harry. **"**I mean, yes, I am."**

Most of the room burst out laughing while some shot him disbelieving looks.

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red. **

"Boys!" McGonagall said disapprovingly.

**Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

"**Fred? George? Are you there?"**

"**Coming, Mum."**

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.**

**Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.**

"Harry." Remus and Minerva admonished.

Sophia smiled at Harry fondly and Snape shook his head he really was more like Lilly.

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief. **"**Ron, you've got something on your nose." The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

"social suicide." Charlie moaned, with Bill nodding in agreement.

Everyone who heard burst out laughing.

"_**Mum**_**— geroff!" He wriggled free.**

Several Slytherins snickered.

"**Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

"**Shut up," said Ron.**

"**Where's Percy?" said their mother.**

"**He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a red and gold badge on his chest with the letter **_**P **_**on it.**

**"P for prat," George said with a sneer.**

Percy sighed. Fred and George glanced at him.

"Percy we are proud of you." Fred said

"It's just your so pompous you have to lord it over us all the time. That's what we don't like." George added

"Oh I'm sorry." Percy said frowning guess he was to blame

"Family hug." George cried pulling the Weasley men into a group hug.

"**Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves —"**

George and Fred rolled their eyes.

"**Oh, are you a **_**prefect**_**, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

"**Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once-"**

"**Or twice —"**

"**A minute —"**

"**All summer —"**

Most of the hall laughed. Percy blushed

"**Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

**How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.**

"**Because he's a **_**prefect**_**," said their mother fondly.**

The twins glared at the book.

**"All right, dear, well, have a good term — send me an owl when you get there."**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins. **"**Now, you two — this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —"**

Fred and George high fived each other while the teachers glared at them.

**Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

"**Great idea though, thanks, Mum."**

"**It's **_**not funny**_**. And look after Ron."**

"**Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

"**Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

Several people started laughing again.

"**Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

"**You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

"**Who?"**

"_**Harry Potter**_**!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice. **"**Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please…"**

"Urgh Fan girl alert!" Sophia cried causing everyone to laugh and Ginny to glare at the table.

"**You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. **

"No she just wants your entire fortune and slipping you an illegal love potion is how she plans to do it." Sophia mocked and the hall turned to glare at Molly.

**Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

"**Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there — like lightning."**

Everyone turned to look at Harry's scar. Sophia brushed Harry's hair over it and glared at the students.

"He is not a show." She growled at them.

"**Poor **_**dear **_**— no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."**

**Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

"Don't you dare ask him!" McGonagall, Sprout and Poppy yelled.

"We didn't!" They both shouted holding their hands in the air.

**Their mother suddenly became very stern.** "**I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

Remus was still glaring at Molly to even comment on that statement he was finding controlling his wolf hard.

"**All right, keep your hair on."**

Molly glared at the twins.

**A whistle sounded. **"**Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.**

"**Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

"**We'll send you a Hogwarts' toilet seat."**

_**George!**_**"**

"**Only joking, Mum."**

Everyone who knew the twins snorted.

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.**

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to — but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.**

"I would hope so," Minerva muttered to Poppy.

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.**

"**Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

"How convinent that everywhere else was full when that was the first compartment he saw." Sophia said

Draco glared at Ron and sneered "scum" at him.

Sophia waved her hand and the work "scum" was printed across his forehead and the hall burst out laughing.

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

Many people chuckled.

"**Hey, Ron." The twins were back.** "**Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there.**

"**Right," mumbled Ron.**

**Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."**

"**Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.**

"**Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.**

Glares were sent at the blushing Weasley.

**Harry nodded.**

"**Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got — you know…"**

The Weasley's all turned to glare at Ron.

**He pointed at Harry's forehead.**

**Harry pulled back his bangs to show the lightning scar. Ron stared. So that's where You-Know-Who —?"**

"**Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."**

"**Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

Glares were returned he really was a scumbag.

"**Well — I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

Many people looked sad, hating how he remembered that.

"**Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.**

"**Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

The other Weasley's smiled fondly at Harry.

"**Err — Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mom's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

**So you must know loads of magic already." The Weasley's were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

"Somehow I don't think Malfoy was referring to us." Fred laughed.

"Though I would like to see his face if had heard that." George added.

Draco sneered and burst out laughing.

"**I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"**

"Horrible." "Foul." "Evil." "Despicable." Those were just some of the words that were heard around the room.

"**Horrible — well, not all of them. **

The Slytherin's shook their heads hearing this. They would hunt us if they knew magic existed.

**My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

"**Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy.**

"Why would that make you look gloomy?" Bill asked staring at his youngest brother.

Ron pretended not to hear him, and just glared at the book.

Fred, George, Bill, Charlie and Percy glared at him. "As far as we are concern you are no longer a Weasley Blood trailer." Bill said while the others nodded in agreement.

**I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch.** **Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. **

"That's no excuse for you to sell out your best friend for money you are a disgrace." Charlie screamed at him.

**You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."**

The Weasley's turned red.

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat,**

Those who knew who the rat were glaring at the book while everyone else was giving them confused looks.

**which was asleep.** "**His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff — I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.**

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

Everyone turned to glare at him.

"… **and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort —" Ron gasped.**

The majority of the hall flinch and Sophia laughed at them.

"**What?" said Harry.**

"_**You said You-Know-Who's name!**_**" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people —"**

Sophia rolled his eyes and muttered "idiot."

"**I'm not trying to be **_**brave **_**or anything, saying the name," said Harry, "I just never knew you shouldn't.** **See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

"Don't worry sweetheart you will get straight O's in your OWLs and NEWTs when I'm done with you." Sophia whispered to the still sleeping Harry.

"**You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."**

"Apparently they refuse to learn our traditions." Sophia glared at Hermione.

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.**

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"**

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor. He had never had any money for candy with the Dursleys, and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry**— **but the woman didn't have Mars Bars.**

"Mars bars?" A pure-blood asked

"It's a muggle candy bar," Dean Thomas explained.

**What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, **

Several people sighed imagining it.

**and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life.**

**Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.**

"Wow that's a lot of candy." A little Gryffindor first year said in awe.

Chuckles were heard throughout the hall.

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

"I hope he shared even if it's with a traitor." Remus said

"**Hungry, are you?"**

"**Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef…"**

Molly looked sadly at her youngest son ignoring the glares from her older children.

"**Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on —"**

"**You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

"**Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

"Typical boys." Astoria muttered.

"**What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs.**

"**They're not **_**really **_**frogs, are they?" **

The purebloods all laughed at this.

**He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

"**No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."**

"I have twelve of Agrippa," Remus smirked at him.

"**What?"**

"**Oh, of course, you wouldn't know — Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect — famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and mustache.**

"Not a bad description," Kingsley observed.

**Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.**

Everyone turn to sneer at him.

"**So **_**this **_**is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

"**Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa — thanks —"**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

_**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**_

_**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**_

_**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. **_

_**Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**_

"Tenpin bowling," Pansy sneered.

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared. **"**He's gone!"**

"Of course he his." Several pure-bloods said.

"**Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron. **"**He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her… do you want it? You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped. "Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

"How weird," Draco said.

"**Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "**_**Weird!"**_

Draco and Ron looked horrified at saying the same thing. Neville burst out laughing.

**Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the Druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.**

Several people made disgusted faces.

"I always get the horrible ones," Hannah muttered.

"**You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavor, they **_**mean **_**every flavor — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a booger-flavored one once."**

"How does he know what a booger-flavored one tastes like?" Lavender asked Parvarti.

"I don't know and I don't want to know." Parvarti said wrinkling her nose in disgust.

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner. **"**Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."**

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavor Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny gray one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.**

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.**

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

Several people turned towards Neville who blushed.

"**Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

"Trevor." Neville shook his head. "He hates the train."

"And the dorm." Dean said amused.

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"**He'll turn up," said Harry.**

"What a sweet boy." Several of the girls cooed.

"**Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…" He left.**

"**Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. **

Neville glared at him.

**Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk." The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

_'Never was very useful.' _Sirius and Remus both had the same thought.

"**He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"**

The twins burst out laughing.

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end. **"**Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —"**

**He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toad less boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

Glares were returned to girl.

"**Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.**

Several people snickered at her description.

"**We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

"**Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

**Er — all right." He cleared his throat. **"**Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**

The whole hall started laughing.

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.**

"**Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart,** **of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She said all this very fast.**

"Merlin Granger do you every breathe?" Draco asked sneering.

People turned to sneer at her.

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.**

"I'm in Ravenclaw and I didn't do that," muttered Lisa Turpin.

"**I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.**

"**Harry Potter," said Harry.**

"**Are you really?" said Hermione. **"**I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in **_**Modern Magical History **_**and **_**The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts **_**and **_**Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century**_**."**

"and she wonders why no one likes her." Severus muttered and Sophia smirked at him

"**Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.**

"poor kid." Sophia said

"**Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

**And she left, taking the toad less boy with her.**

"**Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.**

"We agreed." Several people shouted and then burst out laughing.

**He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

"**What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.**

"**Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw **_**would **_**be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

"See from the moment Harry entered our world he was told never to go in Slytherin." Sophia said.

"**That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"**

"**Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.**

"**You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off houses.**

**So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?" Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.**

"**Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts,"**

"Wicked." Several students muttered.

Charlie stood up and bowed.

**said Ron. **"**Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the **_**Daily Prophet**_**, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles — someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

"We never did catch the person," Kingsley said and Amelia nodded in agreement.

**Harry stared. **"**Really? What happened to them?"**

"**Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

Many people were seen nodding.

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort"**

Everyone but a select few flinched.

**without worrying.**

"**What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.**

"**Er — I don't know any." Harry confessed.**

The Quidditch fans looked scandalized.

"**What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world —" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toad less boy, or Hermione Granger this time.**

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop.**

Draco blushed he really was rude.

**He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

"Of course he was," Neville smirked.

"**Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

"**Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

"That's because they are." Mr Malfoy said smirking.

"**Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

"The name's Bond, James Bond." A small Gryffindor stated and the muggleborn's burst out laughing making Draco blushed.

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

"**Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

Draco shifted uncomfortably trying to ignore his parents glares.

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, **

"Don't take it Harry!" Dennis yelled.

"He should have shaken its bad etiquette not to." Sophia stated making Dennis blush.

**but Harry didn't take it.**

"**I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

Sophia shook her head sadly he clearly couldn't.

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks. **"**I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. **

"Mr. Malfoy!" The majority of the professors shouted.

"How dare you! You are lucky that we can't take points," Minerva told him sternly.

Mrs Malfoy and Mr Malfoy were staring at him, "We will discuss this later young man."

Draco couldn't stand all of the glares so he looked away.

**They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasley's and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

Many growls were heard and many insults were shot at the young Malfoy heir.

**Both Harry and Ron stood up. **

"**Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.**

"**Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.**

"**Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

"**But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some." Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron — Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

"What happened?" Several people yelled excitedly.

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle** —

**Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once.**

**Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"**What **_**has **_**been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

"**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. **

_'Good.'_ Sirius thought smirking.

**He looked closer at Scabbers. "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep." **

_'Of course.'_ Remus thought.

**And so he had. **"**You've met Malfoy before?"**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.**

"**I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. **

Several people snorted.

Mr Malfoy head his head up and smiled.

**My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." **

Arthur nodded his head.

**He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"**

"**You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

"**Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

"**All right — I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice "And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"**

Many people chuckled.

**Ron glared at her as she left. Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down. He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his sneakers underneath them.**

Ron tinged red with embarrassment.

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."**

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"**

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

Hagrid smiled at all the children looking at him fondly.

"**C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

Neville was now the one turning red.

"**Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

Most of the people in the hall smiled, remembering their first time seeing Hogwarts.

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

**No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.**

"Should have pushed her and Ron in," Neville muttered causing people to look at him shocked and burst out laughing. Fred and George got up and high fived him.

"**Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

"**Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbor, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

"**Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.**

"**Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands. Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door. **"**Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

Astoria closed the book, "that was the end of the chapter."

"I think we should have lunch," Sophia said.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Sophia waved her hand and everyone had plates in front of them even snuffles. Hers and Harry's plates were on top of Severus's who just raised his eyebrow at her.

"All you have to do is think of the food you want and it will appear on your plate." Sophia said to the silent hall.

She removed the silencing charm over Harry and gently woke him up.

"Soph" Harry muttered before his eyes flew open and he bolted up right. Sophia chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"You have been asleep for 2 hours hun eat some food and you can go back to sleep ok you need it." Sophia said as Severus handed him a plate. She watched as soup and a sandwich appeared on his plate. Sophia waved her hand and hers and Severus thrones joined together and extended so Harry could sit in the middle.

"Make sure you eat it all Harry." Sophia said and he nodded in response mouth full of food to answer.

"Here Sophia," Severus said handing Sophia her plate.

"Thank you," Sophia said and looked her plate think of a chicken Caesar salad wrap which soon appeared on her plate she smiled and began eating.

20 minutes had gone by and everyone had finished eating. Sophia placed hers and Harry's plate on the floor and looked up, "keep your plates when ever your hungry think of the food you want. Who would like to read next?"

"I would," Susan Bones said nervously, Sophia nodded and levitated the book to her.

"Harry lie down and go back to sleep you look tired don't worry you won't miss anything I'll wake you for dinner." Sophia said. Harry curled up in between them resting his head on Sophia's lap he smiled when she began running her hand softly through his hair. His eyes soon fluttered closed no longer able to fight the sleep. Severus laid the blanket back over him and Sophia beamed at him sending shivers down his spine. He quickly pushed the thought of her away someone like her would never want someone like him he thought bitterly.

**"The Midnight Duel." **Susan read. The teachers turned to glare at Harry who had fallen asleep half on Sophia and half on Severus. There glares soon softened watching them.

"Have we skipped bits again?" A small Hufflepuff asked.

"Oh yes you missed Professor Snape being mean to Harry in potions," She paused smirking at him causing him to flush, "oh and the sorting hat wanting to put Harry in Slytherin." Sophia said.

"What." The Slytherin's and Gryffindor's shouted.

"Read on." Sophia said laughing

**Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.**

Draco mock glared at Harry he was right he couldn't deny it.

**Still, first year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much.**

Sophia smile fondly at him ever the optimist.

**Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.**

"That's a disaster in the making," Tonks muttered.

"Seems strange doesn't it." Luna observed in her dreamy voice. "The two most dangerous classes, potions and flying, and they stick the two most aggressive houses together."

Everyone turned to glare at Dumbledore including the teachers.

Sophia clapped, "Well done Luna you figured it out 50 points to you." Luna blushed.

"**Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."**

"More like the other way around." Dean whispered to Seamus.

**He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.**

"That's because you're a natural!" Katie Bell said smiling.

**"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."**

"It was not," Malfoy smirked, "not as good as Harry though," Neville whispered laughing.

**Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams**

"Unless you're the best player to come to Hogwarts," Fred yelled out.

"Just think Harry would have been on the Slytherin team if it hadn't of been for Dumbledore's manipulations," Sophia said.

The Slytherin's along with Severus were openly glaring at Dumbledore now.

**and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.**

Mrs Malfoy smacked him around the head, "Slytherin's do not boast Dragon."

**He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick.**

**Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.**

"You did what and on my broom?" Charlie yelled furious.

Ron shot the book an annoyed glare.

**Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly.**

"And they never stop," Lavender muttered.

**Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about football. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly.**

**Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham football team, trying to make the players move.**

The muggleborns snickered.

**Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.**

"Thanks Harry." Neville said chuckling remembering his first lesson.

**Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was.** **This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book, not that she hadn't tried.**

Draco rolled his eyes while others snickered.

Glares were sent to the resident bookworm.

**At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called **_**Quidditch Through the Ages**_**.**

**Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail.**

Hermione made an annoyed noise.

**Harry hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.**

Many glares were directed at the blonde Slytherin including some of the Slytherin's.

"Sorry," Draco muttered

**A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.**

"A remembrall!" Dennis yelled excitedly.

Neville just shook his head.

**It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things, this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red — oh…" His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "…**

Several people snickered.

**you've forgotten something…"**

"I hate remembralls." Susan told Hannah.

**Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand.**

"Mr. Malfoy!" Minerva reprimanded.

Mrs Malfoy smacked him round the head and Sophia just shook her head. "Did I pick wrong Draco?" Sophia asked cocking her head to one side watching him carefully.

Draco's whole face dropped paling, "Please don't judge me on these books I'll try to be better I promise." He begged.

"One chance Draco starting when we leave and stop listening to your father he is a bad influence." Sophia said and Draco nodded.

Lucius Malfoy glared furiously at Sophia, "Don't look at me like that you spout blood purity yet kiss the robes of a mad half blood and kill other pure bloods decreasing your numbers where is the logic in that?"

Mr Malfoy flushed muttering and stared at the table making Sophia smirk and Mrs Malfoy coughed trying to hold her laughter.

**Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy,**

"Boys," McGonagall said warningly.

**but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.**

"I have learned over the years to keep a close eye on my lions," Minerva said glaring at Remus and then the twins all whom smiled innocently back at her.

"**What's going on?"**

"**Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."**

**Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table.**" **Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.**

"You look with your eyes not with your hands." One muggleborn chimed causing the others to chuckle and Draco to blush.

**At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.**

**The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.**

"They do," the twins said.

"The school really should get some new brooms." A first year Gryffindor piped up.

"Don't worry September will bring many changes to Hogwarts." Sophia smiled sweetly causing the teachers to look at each other in concern and the students started to whisper.

**Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.**

Said teacher blushed.

**Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."**

**Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.**

"**Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"**

"**UP" everyone shouted.**

**Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did.**

"You're a natural." Remus said with a smile and turned to look at Harry and his smile disappeared seeing Harry curled up between Sophia and Severus. Sophia was running her hand through his hair and Severus kept glancing at Sophia and smiling. Remus watched them for a few minutes they looked like a happy family he wondered if there was a place for him in Harry's new life not like he deserved one after he abandoned him for 13 years. Sighing he turned back to listen.

**Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.**

"That's because I did," muttered Neville.

Madam Longbottom stared at him maybe she pressured him to much.

**Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.**

"There is actually know wrong or right way." Madam Hooch said. "I just teach in the most common way."

Draco smirked at this.

**Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two "**

**But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.**

Several people could be heard sighing.

**Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle — twelve feet — twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and —**

**WHAM — a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay face down on the grass in a heap.**

Most of the hall winced.

"Oh dear were you OK?" Madam Longbottom asked stiffly.

"Yes, I was fine. Madam Pomfrey fixed me up real quick," Neville told her.

**His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight.**

**Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.**

"Of course it was." Madam Hooch said. "He could have been seriously injured."

"**Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get."**

**She turned to the rest of the class.** "**None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."**

"She left a bunch of first year alone, with brooms." Tonks said shaking her head. "That wasn't a good idea. Especially not the Slytherins and Gryffindors."

Madam Hooch flushed. "I was more concerned with getting Mr. Longbottom to the infirmary."

"Yes but you should have sent him with a student." Tonks said.

**Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him.**

**No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.**

Glares were sent to Draco.

"**Did you see his face, the great lump?"** **The other Slytherins joined in.**

Now people were moving their glare from Draco to the other Slytherins.

"**Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.**

"Thank Parvarti," Neville muttered.

"Of course," she told him with a smile.

"**Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought **_**you'd **_**like fat little crybabies, Parvati."**

"Madam Umbridge another student for your special detentions we should start a list so far there is Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Pansy." Sophia smiled sweetly. Several people looked at her nervously.

Umbridge was bouncing with excitement she quickly nodded and smiled and pulled out a piece of parchment and quill jotting down their names.

Draco looked at Sophia with new found respect, "Why Pansy," he asked?

"Well 1 she insulted Neville and 2 her voice annoys me." Sophia said and the hall burst out laughing.

"**Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."**

"Mr. Malfoy!" McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick scolded.

"Mr. Malfoy, you need to keep you hand off of things that don't belong to you," Minerva told him sternly.

"Draco would you like to be added to the detention list?" Sophia asked.

"No Ma'am" Draco said nervously

"Fine no Quidditch games or practise for a month." Sophia said smirking.

**The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.**

"**Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch.**

"Oh no." Minerva groaned burying her head in her hands.

**Malfoy smiled nastily.** "**I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find — how about — up a tree?"**

"**Give it **_**here**_**!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he could fly well.**

Snape narrowed his eyes, Draco told him it had been Potter who took off first.

**Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"**

**Harry grabbed his broom.**

"**No!" shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move — you'll get us all into trouble."**

**Harry ignored her.**

The twins cheered.

**Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him — and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught — this was easy, this was **_**wonderful**_**.**

Katie, Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George cheered, "That's our seeker!"

**He pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.**

**He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.**

"Of course I was. Potter was raised by muggles and he was flying like he had been doing it his whole life," Draco muttered and Neville sniggered at him.

**Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"**

"**Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.**

**Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.**

"Go Harry!" Colin and Dennis Creevey cheered loudly along with the rest of the Gryffindor's.

"**No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.**

**The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy **"**Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.**

"Mr. Malfoy!" Minerva shouted. "Severus you really must talk to him about respecting others property."

Severus nodded, "trust me I will be." He blushed when Sophia smiled proudly at him.

**Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down — next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball —**

**wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching — he stretched out his hand — a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the Remembrall clutched safely in his fist.**

Everyone who hadn't been there to witness it felt their jaw drop.

Charlie stood and started clapping, "brilliant."

"Wicked!" Colin exclaimed.

"Go Harry!" Dennis cheered.

"Thank Harry." Neville said grinning at his friend who was still fast asleep.

Madam Longbottom watched Neville happy he had some friends.

"**HARRY POTTER!"**

"Busted!" Fred and George yelled.

"Boy's" Mr Weasley said.

**His heart sank faster than he'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them.**

**He got to his feet, trembling.**

"_**Never**_— **in all my time at Hogwarts —"Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously, "— how **_**dare **_**you — might have broken your neck."**

"**It wasn't his fault, Professor —"**

"**Be quiet, Miss Patil —"**

"**But Malfoy —"**

"**That's **_**enough**_**, Mr. Weasley.**

**Potter, follow me, now."**

**Harry caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as he left,**

Alicia, Angelina and Katie glared at Draco and his two goons.

**walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. He was going to be expelled, he just knew it.**

**He wanted to say something to defend himself, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at him; he had to jog to keep up. Now he'd done it. He hadn't even lasted two weeks.**

Severus rolled his eyes.

**He'd be packing his bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?**

**Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him.**

"That will just make him worry even more," Bill sighed while Charlie nodded in agreement.

**She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking him to Dumbledore. He thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps he could be Hagrid's assistant. His stomach twisted as he imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards, while he stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.**

Minerva was beginning to look guilty. She didn't realize that her not talking to Harry had scared him so much.

**Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.**

"**Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"**

**Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on him?**

The teachers and adults looked horrified.

"I would, I would never." Minerva spluttered, trying to find the right words. "I would never, ever use corporal punishment on a student.

Everyone turned to look at Harry. Sophia pulled him closer to her a tear trailing down her cheek. People now grew concerned never had their Queen cried. Severus quickly got up seeing this and kneeled in front of Sophia, "Sophia what's wrong?"

"It's horrible," She whispered, snuffles and Remus heard this and quickly moved to stand around Harry.

Severus reached up and wiped her tears, "Can I see maybe we can heal him."

Sophia nodded and waved her hand a steel wall appeared around them blocking out the rest of the room. "Sirius you might want to transform this won't be pretty, hold Remus."

Sirius transformed and looked at Harry in concern and held on to Remus's arms who had tears trailing down his cheeks. Severus helped Sophia move Harry and they gently removed his robes revealing his back and chest. Sirius turned and threw up in the corner and it was quickly banished. "sorry," he muttered. Sophia softly ran her hand over his shallow wounds healing them.

"Sophia I will find a potion or balm that will heal him I promise," Severus said looking at Harry's ribs. Sophia nodded and started to do Harry's robes back up and pulled him closer to her. Severus sat back down lifting the other half of Harry onto him gently taking off his shoes and wrapping the blanket around him. He sighed and grasped Sophia's free hand trying to hold back the tears.

Remus was growling, Sirius shifted back into snuffles and Sophia removed the walls. Remus turned and strode over to Dumbledore and punched him in the face. Bill and Charlie quickly jumped up and dragged Remus back to their seats where snuffles was growling furiously.

**But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused.**

"**Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.**

Charlie and Bill looked confused. So did those who didn't know of Harry being on the quidditch team back in his first year.

Many however were still looking at Harry and there evil potion master. It must be bad since he had Harry on his lap.

"**In here."**

**Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.**

"**Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing. Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.**

"**Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood — I've found you a Seeker."**

The Gryffindors cheered.

"I can't believe he made the team in first year!" Charlie yelled.

The tension in the room broke.

**Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.**

"Of course it did," laughed Katie.

"**Are you serious, Professor?"**

"**Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The boy's a natural. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potter?"**

**Harry nodded silently. He didn't have a clue what was going on, but he didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to his legs.**

**He caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."**

"Oi!" Charlie yelled indignantly.

Bill shot him a look.

Charlie looked away sheepishly blushing.

**Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.**

"They did." Said George, Fred, Katie, Alicia and Angelina seriously.

"**Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potter?" he asked excitedly.**

"**Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.**

"**He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light —speedy — we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor — a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."**

"**I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year.**_**Flattened **_**in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…"**

Severus smirked.

**Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry.**

"**I want to hear you're training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you. Then she suddenly smiled.**

"**Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."**

"Yes, he was." Remus said frowning when he looked at Harry.

"**You're **_**joking**_**."**

**It was dinnertime. Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.**

"_**Seeker**_**?" he said. "But first years **_**never**_— **you must be the youngest house player in about —"**

" — **a century," said Harry, shoveling pie into his mouth. He felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told me."**

**Ron was so amazed, so impressed, he just sat and gaped at Harry.**

"**I start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."**

Many students snorted.

**Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted Harry, and hurried over.**

"**Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too — Beaters."**

The Gryffindor quidditch team cheered.

"**I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year," said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."**

"**Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."**

"**Bet it's that one behind the statue of Gregory the Smarmy that we found in our first week. See you."**

Umbridge smiled 'finally' she thought. "We will just have to see about sealing up this secret passage," she simpered.

Fred and George exchanged looks then shrugged. "It already is, it cave in." Fred said.

Umbridge glared at the twins. "I see," she snapped.

**Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.**

"Seriously." Astoria said smirking. "It's like your obsessed with him or something."

Draco spluttered. "I am not, obsessed with him.

Sophia looked up and smirked at Draco causing him to blush.

"**Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"**

"**You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," said Harry coolly. There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.**

"**I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only — no contact."**

Severus gave Draco a look stating we are having a serious take later.

**What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"**

"He was raised by muggles." Colin shouted

"**Of course he has," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm his second, who's yours?"**

The staff turned to glare at Ron, "Detention 1 month," Umbridge sneered at him, "with me and Mr Filch."

The other Weasley's glared at Ron who was bright red glaring at the table, 'stupid Harry Potter this is all his fault.'

**Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.**

"**Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."**

Remus shook his head sadly, Harry and Draco reminded him so much of James and Severus.

**When Malfoy had gone, Ron and Harry looked at each other.**

"**What is a wizard's duel?" said Harry. "And what do you mean, you're my second?"**

Several Gryffindors groaned.

"**Well, a second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually, getting started at last on his cold pie.**

Glares were returned to the red head idiot.

"I'm sure that made him feel much better," Dean said shaking his head.

**Catching the look on Harry's face, he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."**

_'I did.' _Malfoy thought.

"**And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"**

"**Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.**

"**Excuse me."** **They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger.**

"**Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron.**

**Hermione ignored him and spoke to Harry. **"**I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying —"**

Several people snorted.

"Right Granger, I'm sure you couldn't," Draco sneered at her.

"**Bet you could," Ron muttered.**

Arthur sat staring at the ceiling where had he gone wrong with his two youngest, he could blame Percy for leaving he was right we worshipped Dumbledore but not anymore.

"Family meeting at the end of the book," He said looking at Bill who nodded telling the others.

"— **and you **_**mustn't **_**go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."**

"**And it's really none of your business," said Harry.**

Sophia smiled shame he didn't keep that attitude.

"**Good-bye," said Ron.**

**All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing). Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as "If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them."**

**There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today.**

**On the other hand, Malfoy's sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness — this was his big chance to beat Malfoy face-to-face. He couldn't miss it.**

"Mr. Potter!" Minerva yelled exasperated.

**Half-past eleven," Ron muttered at last, "we'd better go."**

**They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."**

"Let me guess." Dean said. "Hermione?"

**A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.**

"_**You!**_" **said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"**

**Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering. **"**Come on," he said to Ron. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.**

**Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.**

Many people snickered.

"**Don't you **_**care **_**about Gryffindor, do you **_**only **_**care about yourselves, **_**I **_**don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."**

Draco and several other people in the hall rolled their eyes. _'Know it all.' _They thought.

"**Go away."**

"**All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —"**

**But what they were, they didn't find out.**

"Why not?" Dennis asked. Colin just shrugged.

**Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a night time visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.**

"That sucks," Charlie said nodding.

"**Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.**

"**That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."**

**They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.** "**I'm coming with you," she said.**

"**You are **_**not**_**."**

"Do you two ever not argue?" Dean asked sneering at them. He was shot two glares from Ron and Hermione. Several people burst out laughing seeing this.

"**D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."**

Everyone turned to stare at Hermione.

"I would have told you to get lost," Zacharias said.

"Harry is too nice for his own good," Neville stated.

"**You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly.**

"**Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something."**

**It was a sort of snuffling.**

"**Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.**

**It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville.**

"Neville?" Several people yelled in shock.

McGonagall groaned

**He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.**

"**Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."**

Neville flushed. "I can never remember."

Several people shook their heads in amusement.

"**Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."**

"**How's your arm?" said Harry.**

"Such a sweet boy," Madam Pomfrey whispered to Professor Sprout who smiled in agreement.

"**Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."**

"**Good — well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later —"**

"**Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."**

**Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.** "**If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."**

**Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies,** **but Harry hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.**

**They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows. At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky.**

Filch glared at the trio and Neville.

**They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.**

**Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet.**

"That's because they aren't coming," Astoria said glaring at Draco.

**The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness. They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry took out his wand in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once.**

"Good." Moody said nodding in approval. "CONSTANT VIGILANCE."

**The minutes crept by.**

"**He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered**

Draco chuckled shaking his head

**Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak — and it wasn't Malfoy.**

"**Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."**

"Run!" Many students yelled.

**It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other three to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.**

"**They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."**

"**This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified,** **they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armor.**

Draco rolled his eyes and sneered. _'Idiot.'_

**The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.**

"**RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following — they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one corridor then another, Harry in the lead, without any idea where they were or where they were going — they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.**

"**I think we've lost him," Harry panted, leaning against the cold wall and wiping his forehead. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.**

"**I —**_**told**_— **you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I — told — you."**

Dean groaned. "Now it not the time for I told you so."

"**We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."**

"**Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you — Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."**

Glares were sent to Draco who shifted uncomfortably gazing at Harry.

**Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.**

"**Let's go."**

**It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.**

**It was Peeves.**

Fred and George groaned.

**He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.**

"Of course." Groaned several people.

"**Shut up, Peeves — please — you'll get us thrown out."**

**Peeves cackled.**

"**Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."**

"**Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."**

"Never beg Peeves. It just gets him more excited." George told him seriously.

"**Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."**

"**Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves this was a big mistake.**

Fred and George groaned again.

"**STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"**

**Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door — and it was locked.**

McGonagall gasped along with the other teachers. Severus was staring at Harry opened mouthed wondering how he didn't get killed. Sophia looked at him confused and he just shook his head.

"**This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"**

**They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves's shouts.**

"**Oh, move over," Hermione snarled.**

**She grabbed Harry's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "**_**Alohomora**_**!"**

"No!" Yelled all of the teachers who knew what was in there.

"What?" Mr Weasley asked worriedly.

Severus sighed and said. "That's the out of bounds third corridor.

Everyone either gasped or paled.

"Get out of there!" Everyone yelled.

"Strange how a first year spell can open an off limits corridor wouldn't you say?" Sophia commented mildly.

**The lock clicked and the door swung open — they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.**

"**Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."**

"**Say 'please.'"**

"**Don't mess with me, Peeves, now **_**where did they go**_**?"**

"**Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.**

"**All right —**_**please**_**."**

"**NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!"**

**And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.**

"**He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay — get **_**off**_**, Neville!"**

"Oh no." Whispered several first years fearfully.

Several people shot Neville looks.

**For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute.**

**"**_**What**_**?"**

**Harry turned around — and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare — this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.**

Everyone was leaning forward in their seats hooked on the story.

**They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.**

People were looking at Harry and Neville fearfully.

**They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.**

"What?" Everyone shouted. Most were pale. Even Fred and George were staring at the book in shock. Luna lost her dreamy look and stared at Neville.

"Why is that monster in a school full of children?" Mrs Malfoy shouted stood up glaring at the staff, "Minister Fudge I want Dumbledore tried and sent to Azkaban for endangering our children."

Sophia waved her hand and Dumbledore was wearing magical suppressers.

"Rest assured he will be." Amelia said writing all this down.

Remus was looking at Harry fearfully and Snuffles was wining, covering his eyes with his paws.

Everyone was glaring at Dumbledore who looked like he didn't care.

**It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.**

Sophia run her hand gently across Harry's cheek checking he was ok.

**Harry groped for the doorknob — between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.**

"Good choice," Tonks said face white in fear.

**They fell backward — Harry slammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere,**

**but they hardly cared — all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.**

"Thank Merlin." Mrs Malfoy said.

Everyone let out sighs of relief.

"**Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.**

"I don't know why she asks." Remus said. "No one ever tells her."

"**Never mind that — pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.**

**It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.**

"I don't blame him," Colin mumbled.

"**What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."**

The twins snorted.

**Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"**

"**The floor?" Harry suggested.**

Several people snorted.

**"I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads."**

"**No, **_**not **_**the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."**

Light bulbs turned on in several people's heads. _'That must be where the stone is!'_

"Well isn't that convenient." Sophia said laughing.

**She stood up, glaring at them. **"**I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled.**

**Everyone looked at her dumbfounded.**

"Really Miss Granger?" Severus sneered.

"Miss Granger!" Minerva shouted.

**Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."**

**Ron stared after her, his mouth open.** "**No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."**

Several people started snickering.

**But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed. The dog was guarding something… What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide — except perhaps Hogwarts.**

"You're really quick to put things together." Tonks noted.

"Good instincts too." Moody grunted.

Sophia smiled at Harry's sleeping form.

**It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.**

Susan closed the book and looked up, "that is the end of this chapter."

Sophia spoke up, "So who is next?"

"I'll read next." McGonagall said summoning the book.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

**"The Mirror of Erised," **Mcgonagall started reading.

"What's that?" Several students asked.

"Erised is desire backwards." Luna answered dreamily.

Sophia looked up, "Ok so we have missed Halloween where a troll was let into the school and Ron and Harry went to rescue Hermione from a girls bathroom they were almost squashed, (several people paled here and Remus looked at Harry in concern.) Convenient that the teachers were told that it was in the dungeon and it just happened to appear in a girl's bathroom. Oh and we also the missed the Quidditch match where Harry's broom almost through him off. I think that's it so on with the reading."

**Christmas was coming. One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban.**

Sophia paled and everyone looked at her confused.

"What's wrong?" Fred asked.

Sophia pulled out a piece of parchment wrote them a note and sent it over to them.

Fred and George opened the note and read it, 'Voldemort was underneath the turban.' The note disappeared and they were both sheer white and clinging to each other.

**The few owls that managed to battle their way through the stormy sky to deliver mail had to be nursed back to health by Hagrid before they could fly off again. No one could wait for the holidays to start.**

**While the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall had roaring fires, the drafty corridors had become icy and a bitter wind rattled the windows in the classrooms. Worst of all were Professor Snape's classes down in the dungeons, where their breath rose in a mist before them and they kept as close as possible to their hot cauldrons.**

"**I do feel so sorry," said Draco Malfoy, one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home."**

Glares were sent at Draco and Mrs Malfoy looked at him in disappointment.

Draco sighed feeling guilty.

**He was looking over at Harry as he spoke. Crabbe and Goyle chuckled. Harry, who was measuring out powdered spine of lionfish, ignored them.**

Severus was surprised at this.

**had been even more unpleasant than usual since the Quidditch match. Disgusted that the Slytherins had lost, he had tried to get everyone laughing at how a wide-mouthed tree frog would be replacing Harry as Seeker next.**

"It's obvious he's just jealous," Dennis said.

"I am not!" Draco shouted crossing his arms.

**Then he'd realized that nobody found this funny, because they were all so impressed at the way Harry had managed to stay on his bucking broomstick.**

**So Malfoy, jealous and angry, had gone back to taunting Harry about having no proper family.**

The adults all frowned.

"That isn't very nice Mr. Malfoy." McGonagall said watching has he looked at Harry sadly

**It was true that Harry wasn't going back to Privet Drive for Christmas. Professor McGonagall had come around the week before, making a list of students who would be staying for the holidays, and Harry had signed up at once. He didn't feel sorry for himself at all; this would probably be the best Christmas he'd ever had.**

The adults all looked sad at this.

Sophia lent forward and brushed Harry's hair to the side, "I promise this Christmas will be the best you have ever had." Severus and Remus all nodded in agreement hearing this.

**Ron and his brothers were staying, too, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit Charlie.**

**When they left the dungeons at the end of Potions, they found a large fir tree blocking the corridor ahead. Two enormous feet sticking out at the bottom and a loud puffing sound told them that Hagrid was behind it.**

"**Hi, Hagrid, want any help?" Ron asked, sticking his head through the branches.**

"Properly wanted more money than he was already getting." Draco sneered while Neville laughed.

"**Nah, I'm all right, thanks, Ron."**

"**Would you mind moving out of the way?" came Malfoy's cold drawl from behind them. "Are you trying to earn some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to be gamekeeper yourself when you leave Hogwarts, I suppose — that hut of Hagrid's must seem like a palace compared to what your family's used to."**

The Weasley's all turned to glare at Draco.

Draco turned pink from all the glares he was receiving, not just from the Weasley's but over half of the great hall.

**Ron dived at Malfoy just as Snape came up the stairs.**

**WEASLEY!"**

**Ron let go of the front of Malfoy's robes.**

"**He was provoked, Professor Snape," said Hagrid, sticking his huge hairy face out from behind the tree. "Malfoy was insultin' his family."**

"Like he's going to believe that," Parvarti said.

Severus frowned looking down he really hated teaching but he had to keep up appearances.

"**Be that as it may, fighting is against Hogwarts rules, Hagrid," said Snape silkily. "Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley, and be grateful it isn't more. Move along, all of you."**

"To be fair he didn't actually hear what came out of Mr. Malfoy's mouth," Amelia said.

**Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle pushed roughly past the tree, scattering needles everywhere and smirking.**

"**I'll get him," said Ron, grinding his teeth at Malfoy's back, "one of these days, I'll get him —"**

Draco just smirked.

"**I hate them both," said Harry, "Malfoy and Snape."**

"I sure he doesn't any more." Sophia said.

"**Come on, cheer up, it's nearly Christmas," said Hagrid. "Tell yeh what, come with me an' see the Great Hall, looks a treat."**

"The great hall really is beautiful during Christmas," Lavender smiled wistfully.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

**So the three of them followed Hagrid and his tree off to the Great Hall, where Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick were busy with the Christmas decorations.**

"**Ah, Hagrid, the last tree — put it in the far corner, would you?"**

**The hall looked spectacular. Festoons of holly and mistletoe hung all around the walls, and no less than twelve towering Christmas trees stood around the room, some sparkling with tiny icicles, some glittering with hundreds of candles.**

"**How many days you got left until yer holidays?" Hagrid asked.**

"**Just one," said Hermione. "And that reminds me — Harry, Ron, we've got half an hour before lunch, we should be in the library."**

The Weasley twins looked horrified.

"**Oh yeah, you're right," said Ron, tearing his eyes away from Professor Flitwick, who had golden bubbles blossoming out of his wand and was trailing them over the branches of the new tree.**

"**The library?" said Hagrid, following them out of the hall. "Just before the holidays? Bit keen, aren't yeh?"**

"**Oh, we're not working," Harry told him brightly. "Ever since you mentioned Nicolas Flamel we've been trying to find out who he is."**

The twins looked at each other. "Okay we can accept that."

The staff glared at them.

"**You what?" Hagrid looked shocked. "Listen here — I've told yeh — drop it. It's nothin' to you what that dog's guardin'."**

"Too late Hagrid." Remus sighed.

**"We just want to know who Nicolas Flamel is, that's all," said Hermione.**

"**Unless you'd like to tell us and save us the trouble?" Harry added. "We must've been through hundreds of books already and we can't find him anywhere — just give us a hint — I know I've read his name somewhere."**

A few Ravenclaw's gasped and realized where they had read the name before.

Remus knew where Harry had read the name and just smiled, _'chocolate really was helpful'_

"**I'm sayin' nothin', said Hagrid flatly.**

"**Just have to find out for ourselves, then," said Ron, and they left Hagrid looking disgruntled and hurried off to the library.**

**They had indeed been searching books for Flamel's name ever since Hagrid had let it slip, because how else were they going to find out what Snape was trying to steal?**

Severus rolled his eyes chuckling quietly.

**The trouble was, it was very hard to know where to begin, not knowing what Flamel might have done to get himself into a book.**

**He wasn't in Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century, or Notable Magical Names of Our Time; he was missing, too, from Important Modern Magical Discoveries, and A Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry.**

Remus was mentally chuckling. _'Flamel isn't exactly recent.'_

**And then, of course, there was the sheer size of the library; tens of thousands of books; thousands of shelves; hundreds of narrow rows.**

**Hermione took out a list of subjects and titles she had decided to search while Ron strode off down a row of books and started pulling them off the shelves at random.**

"That's actually not a bad system. They had no clue when, where, or how to search. This way he might actually get lucky," Bill said.

**Harry wandered over to the Restricted Section. He had been wondering for a while if Flamel wasn't somewhere in there. Unfortunately, you needed a specially signed note from one of the teachers to look in any of the restricted books, and he knew he'd never get one.**

**These were the books containing powerful Dark Magic never taught at Hogwarts, and only read by older students studying advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts.**

Dean snorted. "We should probably get a teacher who can teach regular defense against the dark arts first." Students who heard chuckled.

"**What are you looking for, boy?"**

"**Nothing," said Harry.**

**Madam Pince the librarian brandished a feather duster at him.**

Several people snorted.

"**You'd better get out, then. Go on — out!"**

**Wishing he'd been a bit quicker at thinking up some story, Harry left the library. He, Ron, and Hermione had already agreed they'd better not ask Madam Pince where they could find Flamel. They were sure she'd be able to tell them, but they couldn't risk Snape hearing what they were up to.**

**Harry waited outside in the corridor to see if the other two had found anything, but he wasn't very hopeful. They had been looking for two weeks, after all, but as they only had odd moments between lessons it wasn't surprising they'd found nothing. What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.**

Madam Pince gave a stern look to the students who chuckled..

**Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, shaking their heads. They went off to lunch.**

"**You will keep looking while I'm away, won't you?" said Hermione. "And send me an owl if you find anything."**

"Let's see, two eleven year old boys, spending their christmas break in the library?" Remus asked laughing. "Nope, sorry not going to happen."

"**And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is," said Ron. "It'd be safe to ask them."**

"**Very safe, as they're both dentists," said Hermione.**

**Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too good a time to think much about Flamel.**

Several people laughed at this.

**They had the dormitory to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual, so they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. They sat by the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork — bread, English muffins, marshmallows — and plotting ways of getting Malfoy expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they wouldn't work.**

Draco and Severus glared at the sleeping Harry.

**Ron also started teaching Harry wizard chess. This was exactly like Muggle chess except that the figures were alive, which made it a lot like directing troops in battle. Ron's set was very old and battered. Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged to someone else in his family — in this case, his grandfather. However, old chessmen weren't a drawback at all. Ron knew them so well he never had trouble getting them to do what he wanted.**

**Harry played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had lent him,**

Seamus shifted guiltily in his seat.

**and they didn't trust him at all. He wasn't a very good player yet and they kept shouting different bits of advice at him, which was confusing. "Don't send me there, can't you see his knight? Send him, we can afford to lose him."**

**On Christmas Eve, Harry went to bed looking forward to the next day for the food and the fun, but not expecting any presents at all.**

Everyone sent him pitying looks.

Sirius and Remus were thinking of all the different presents he was going to buy Harry this year.

Sophia looked at Harry and burst out laughing. Severus looked at her funny. "sorry," she said, "but I can imagine he is going to get spoilt rotten this year." Severus chuckled and nodded in agreement.

**When he woke early in the morning, however, the first thing he saw was a small pile of packages at the foot of his bed.**

Everyone smiled at this.

"**Happy Christmas," said Ron sleepily as Harry scrambled out of bed and pulled on his bathrobe.**

"**You, too," said Harry. "Will you look at this? I've got some presents!"**

More pitying looks were sent his way.

"**What did you expect, turnips?" said Ron, turning to his own pile, which was a lot bigger than Harry's.**

Draco sneered at Ron no tack.

**Harry picked up the top parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was To Harry, from Hagrid. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled it himself. Harry blew it — it sounded a bit like an owl.**

Hagrid beamed at Harry

**A second, very small parcel contained a note.** _**We received your message and enclose your Christmas present**_**. **_**From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia**_**. Taped to the note was a fifty-pence piece.**

The muggleborns and those who knew what a fifty-pence piece were glared at the book.

"Horrible," Tonks spat.

"**That's friendly," said Harry.**

**Ron was fascinated by the fifty pence.** "**Weird!" he said, 'What a shape! This is money?"**

The Weasley family started laughing.

"Just like dad." Charlie said laughing.

Mr Weasley however frowned at his Son.

"**You can keep it," said Harry, laughing at how pleased Ron was. "Hagrid and my aunt and uncle — so who sent these?"**

"**I think I know who that one's from," said Ron, turning a bit pink and pointing to a very lumpy parcel. "My mum. I told her you didn't expect any presents and — oh, no," he groaned, "she's made you a Weasley sweater."**

"What's wrong with a Weasley sweater?" Ginny demanded as Molly looked hurt.

"Nothing!" Ron said quickly.

Those watching the pink ones burst out laughing.

**Harry had torn open the parcel to find a thick, hand-knitted sweater in emerald green and a large box of homemade fudge.**

"**Every year she makes us a sweater," said Ron, unwrapping his own, "and mine's always maroon."**

The older Weasley's glared at him.

"**That's really nice of her," said Harry, trying the fudge, which was very tasty.**

**His next present also contained candy — a large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.**

**This only left one parcel. Harry picked it up and felt it. It was very light. He unwrapped it.**

**Something fluid and silvery gray went slithering to the floor where it lay in gleaming folds.**

"The cloak." Remus said quietly and snuffles ears perked up.

**Ron gasped.** "**I've heard of those," he said in a hushed voice, dropping the box of Every Flavor Beans he'd gotten from Hermione.**

"**If that's what I think it is — they're really rare, and really valuable."**

"What is it?" Several students asked.

Severus glared over at Dumbledore.

**"What is it?" Harry picked the shining, silvery cloth off the floor. It was strange to the touch, like water woven into material.**

**"It's an invisibility cloak,"**

"You have an invisibility cloak?" The hall shouted as one.

"Aha!" Umbridge shouted. "That must be confiscated.

"Actually Madam Umbridge, that cloak is a Potter family heirloom and as such belongs to Mr. Potter and Dumbledore should never of had it in the first place." Sophia said glaring at Dumbledore who glared back.

**said Ron, a look of awe on his face. "I'm sure it is — try it on."**

**Harry threw the cloak around his shoulders and Ron gave a yell.**

"**It is! Look down!"**

**Harry looked down at his feet, but they were gone. He dashed to the mirror. Sure enough, his reflection looked back at him, just his head suspended in midair,** **his body completely invisible.**

"Very useful Potter," Moody grunted.

**He pulled the cloak over his head and his reflection vanished completely.**

"Wow." Many people said in awe.

"**There's a note!" said Ron suddenly. "A note fell out of it!"**

**Harry pulled off the cloak and seized the letter. Written in narrow, loopy writing he had never seen before were the following words:**

The staff turned to glare at Dumbledore.

_**Your father left this in my possession before he died.**_

Remus and Snuffles turned to glare as well.

_**It is time it was returned to you.**_

_**Use it well.**_

Severus glared at Dumbledore, '_use it well, it's a clear hint towards the stone.'_

_**A Very Happy Christmas to you.**_

**There was no signature. Harry stared at the note. Ron was admiring the cloak.**

"**I'd give anything for one of these," he said. "Anything. What's the matter?"**

"**Nothing," said Harry. He felt very strange. Who had sent the cloak? Had it really once belonged to his father?**

"Yes," Remus said.

"If James had an invisibility cloak it certainly explains a lot." McGonagall said. "It would explain why a certain group of students never got caught being out of bounds."

Remus smiled and whistled innocently and the students burst out laughing.

**Before he could say or think anything else, the dormitory door was flung open and Fred and George Weasley bounded in. Harry stuffed the cloak quickly out of sight.**

**He didn't feel like sharing it with anyone else yet.**

"I guess I can understand that." Fred said.

**"Happy Christmas!"**

"**Hey, look — Harry's got a Weasley sweater, too!"**

**Fred and George were wearing blue sweaters, one with a large yellow F on it, the other a G.**

"**Harry's is better than ours, though," said Fred, holding up Harry's sweater. "She obviously makes more of an effort if you're not family."**

Fred and George chuckled seeing their mothers glares.

**"Why aren't you wearing yours, Ron?" George demanded. "Come on, get it on, they're lovely and warm."**

"**I hate maroon," Ron moaned half-heartedly as he pulled it over his head.**

"**You haven't got a letter on yours," George observed. "I suppose she thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid — we know we're called Gred and Forge."**

This caused many people to chuckle.

"**What's all this noise?"**

**Percy Weasley stuck his head through the door, looking disapproving. He had clearly gotten halfway through unwrapping his presents as he, too, carried a lumpy sweater over his arm, which Fred seized.**

"**P for prefect!**

Percy blushed.

**Get it on, Percy, come on, we're all wearing ours, even Harry got one."**

"**I — don't — want —" said Percy thickly, as the twins forced the sweater over his head, knocking his glasses askew.**

"**And you're not sitting with the prefects today, either," said George. "Christmas is a time for family."**

Everyone nodded it really was.

**They frog-marched Percy from the room, his arms pinned to his side by his sweater.**

Several people snickered at the image of stuffy Percy being frog-marched by the twins.

**Harry had never in all his life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce –** **and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table.**

"I love those!" Squealed an excited second year Ravenclaw.

**These fantastic party favors were nothing like the feeble Muggle ones the Dursleys usually bought, with their little plastic toys and their flimsy paper hats inside. Harry pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet,**

Several people chuckled

Umbridge sneered at Dumbledore.

**and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him.**

**Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey. Percy nearly broke his teeth on a silver sickle embedded in his slice.**

The twins snickered.

**Harry watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine,**

Remus shook his head chuckling.

**finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Harry's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided.**

The students chuckled and McGonagall looked faintly embarrassed.

**When Harry finally left the table, he was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of nonexplodable, luminous balloons,** **a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit,** **and his own new wizard chess set.**

"They still don't listen to him," Dean said bursting out laughing.

**The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.**

**Harry and the Weasleys spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds.**

"Sounds like a fun day." Charlie said.

**Then, cold, wet, and gasping for breath, they returned to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, where Harry broke in his new chess set by losing spectacularly to Ron.**

**He suspected he wouldn't have lost so badly if Percy hadn't tried to help him so much.**

Percy glared at Harry, he was only trying to help.

"The only person who's worse at chess than Harry is Percy," Fred said chuckling. Percy blushed glaring at Fred.

**After a meal of turkey sandwiches, crumpets, trifle, and Christmas cake, everyone felt too full and sleepy to do much before bed except sit and watch Percy chase Fred and George all over Gryffindor tower because they'd stolen his prefect badge.**

The students chuckled.

**It had been Harry's best Christmas day ever.**

Several people smiled, glad Harry had a good christmas.

**Yet something had been nagging at the back of his mind all day. Not until he climbed into bed was he free to think about it: the invisibility cloak and whoever had sent it.**

McGonagall and Severus glared at Dumbledore.

**Ron, full of turkey and cake and with nothing mysterious to bother him, fell asleep almost as soon as he'd drawn the curtains of his four-poster. Harry leaned over the side of his own bed and pulled the cloak out from under it.**

**His father's… this had been his father's. He let the material flow over his hands, smoother than silk, light as air. Use it well, the note had said.**

"Really Albus, you practically told him to go wandering at night," McGonagall huffed.

**He had to try it, now.**

The teachers and adults groaned.

**He slipped out of bed and wrapped the cloak around himself. Looking down at his legs, he saw only moonlight and shadows. It was a very funny feeling.**

_**Use it well.**_

**Suddenly, Harry felt wide-awake.**

"Of course you do," Remus said sighing.

**The whole of Hogwarts was open to him in this cloak.**

Sophia chuckled.

**Excitement flooded through him as he stood there in the dark and silence. He could go anywhere in this, anywhere, and Filch would never know.**

**Ron grunted in his sleep. Should Harry wake him? Something held him back — his father's cloak — he felt that this time — the first time — he wanted to use it alone.**

**He crept out of the dormitory, down the stairs, across the common room, and climbed through the portrait hole.**

"**Who's there?" squawked the Fat Lady.**

Remus starting chuckling. "I don't know why she even bothers to ask, nobody ever tells her."

**Harry said nothing.**

**He walked quickly down the corridor.** **Where should he go? He stopped, his heart racing, and thought. And then it came to him. The Restricted Section in the library.**

Madam Pince glared at Harry.

Fred and George sighed.

**He'd be able to read as long as he liked, as long as it took to find out who Flamel was.**

**He set off, drawing the invisibility cloak tight around him as he walked.**

**The library was pitch-black and very eerie. Harry lit a lamp to see his way along the rows of books. The lamp looked as if it was floating along in midair, and even though Harry could feel his arm supporting it, the sight gave him the creeps.**

Several people shivered.

"That would be creepy," Colin said.

**The Restricted Section was right at the back of the library. Stepping carefully over the rope that separated these books from the rest of the library,** **he held up his lamp to read the titles.**

**They didn't tell him much. Their peeling faded gold letters spelled words in languages Harry couldn't understand. Some had no title at all. One book had a dark stain on it that looked horribly like blood.**

Many students made disgusted faces.

**The hairs on the back of Harry's neck prickled. Maybe he was imagining it, maybe not, but he thought a faint whispering was coming from the books, as though they knew someone was there who shouldn't be.**

"Good Potter, pay attention to that feeling." Moody said, impressed.

Snape frowned looking thoughtfully at Harry. _'The boy was clearly powerful but why didn't he use it.'_

Sophia mouthed 'Power blocks' as him and he growled looking at Dumbledore.

**He had to start somewhere. Setting the lamp down carefully on the floor, he looked along the bottom shelf for an interesting looking book. A large black and silver volume caught his eye. He pulled it out with difficulty, because it was very heavy, and, balancing it on his knee, let it fall open.**

**A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence — the book was screaming!**

Several people winced.

"Harry really does have the worst luck," Neville said while everyone else nodded in agreement.

**Harry snapped it shut, but the shriek went on and on, one high, unbroken, ear-splitting note. He stumbled backward and knocked over his lamp, which went out at once.**

**Panicking, he heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside — stuffing the shrieking book back on the shelf, he ran for it. He passed Filch in the doorway; Filch's pale, wild eyes looked straight through him, and Harry slipped under Filch's outstretched arm and streaked off up the corridor,**

The twins snickered.

**the book's shrieks still ringing in his ears.**

**He came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armor. He had been so busy getting away from the library, he hadn't paid attention to where he was going.**

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody yelled causing people to jump.

**Perhaps because it was dark, he didn't recognize where he was at all. There was a suit of armor near the kitchens, he knew, but he must be five floors above there.**

"**You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library Restricted Section."**

**Harry felt the blood drain out of his face. Wherever he was, Filch must know a shortcut, because his soft, greasy voice was getting nearer, and to his horror, it was Snape who replied, **"**The Restricted Section? Well, they can't be far, we'll catch them."**

"Those have to be the two worst people to catch you after curfew," Charlie said.

**Harry stood rooted to the spot as Filch and Snape came around the corner ahead. They couldn't see him, of course, but it was a narrow corridor and if they came much nearer they'd knock right into him — the cloak didn't stop him from being solid.**

"Can you imagine if it did?" Draco asked.

"That would be cool," Neville said smiling.

**He backed away as quietly as he could. A door stood ajar to his left. It was his only hope. He squeezed through it, holding his breath, trying not to move it, and to his relief he managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. They walked straight past, and Harry leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away.**

**That had been close, very close. It was a few seconds before he noticed anything about the room he had hidden in.**

"No three headed dogs I hope," Fred joked grinning.

Chuckles were heard around the room.

**It looked like an unused classroom. The dark shapes of desks and chairs were piled against the walls, and there was an upturned wastepaper basket – but propped against the wall facing him was something that didn't look as if it belonged there, something that looked as if someone had just put it there to keep it out of the way.**

**It was a magnificent mirror, as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet. There was an inscription carved around the top: Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi.**

Remus's eyes widened as he realized what the words said and frowned looking at Harry.

"I show not your face but your heart's desire." Luna said in her usual dreamy voice.

"What?" Several people asked.

**His panic fading now that there was no sound of Filch and Snape, Harry moved nearer to the mirror, wanting to look at himself but see no reflection again.**

**He stepped in front of it.**

**He had to clap his hands to his mouth to stop himself from screaming.**

Several people tensed.

**He whirled around. His heart was pounding far more furiously than when the book had screamed — for he had seen not only himself in the mirror, but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him.**

"Who?" Colin asked.

**But the room was empty. Breathing very fast, he turned slowly back to the mirror.**

**There he was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected behind him, were at least ten others. Harry looked over his shoulder — but still, no one was there. Or were they all invisible, too? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror's trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not?**

Fred and George sighed.

**He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving.**

**He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she was really there, he'd touch her, their reflections were so close together, but he felt only air – she and the others existed only in the mirror.**

**She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes —her eyes are just like mine,**

Severus drew back into his chair, eyes wide and dark, as he realized who had appeared to the boy. Sophia looked at him sadly and then turned her attention back to Harry sighing.

"Lily." The teachers and adults who had known her said sadly.

"Oh Harry," several girls said. The girls all had tears in their eyes, some of the boys looked uncomfortable.

Sophia ran her hand softly across his forehead and through his hair glad he was asleep and wouldn't here this again.

Severus watched Sophia confused he loved Lily but he was starting to have feelings for Sophia how was that possible.

**Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green — exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time.**

"Harry your parent's love you and they will always be with you in here," Sophia said placing her hand on his heart and watched as he smiled in his sleep.

**The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just as Harry's did.**

"James." Remus and those who knew him said sadly.

Snuffles whimpered and covered his face with his paws. Luna ran her hand through his fur stroking him.

**Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.**

"**Mum?" he whispered. "Dad?"**

"You didn't even know what they looked like?" Katie asked horrified.

"Those awful people!" Pomona said.

Hagrid smiled with tears in his beetle black eyes at the memory of the photos.

**They just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror, and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a little old man who looked as though he had Harry's knobbly knees — Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life.**

The girls were crying harder now.

_'I can't imagine not knowing what my own parents looked like.'_ Draco said looking at his mum who got up and wrapped her arms around him kissing his head softly.

**The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them.**

Sophia sighed.

**He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.**

"That mirror isn't good for you," Bill said.

"Yeah." Charlie said. "Don't go near it again."

**How long he stood there, he didn't know. The reflections did not fade and he looked and looked until a distant noise brought him back to his senses. He couldn't stay here, he had to find his way back to bed. He tore his eyes away from his mother's face, whispered, "I'll come back," and hurried from the room.**

**"You could have woken me up," said Ron, crossly.**

"**You can come tonight, I'm going back, I want to show you the mirror."**

"**I'd like to see your mom and dad," Ron said eagerly.**

"Unfortunately it doesn't work that way," Arthur said quietly.

"**And I want to see all your family, all the Weasleys, you'll be able to show me your other brothers and everyone."**

"**You can see them any old time," said Ron. "Just come round my house this summer. Anyway, maybe it only shows dead people.**

"Ron!" The adults yelled.

**Shame about not finding Flamel, though. Have some bacon or something, why aren't you eating anything?"**

**Harry couldn't eat. He had seen his parents and would be seeing them again tonight. He had almost forgotten about Flamel. It didn't seem very important anymore. Who cared what the three headed dog was guarding? What did it matter if Snape stole it, really?**

"That's not good," Tonks said quietly.

"**Are you all right?" said Ron. "You look odd."**

**What Harry feared most was that he might not be able to find the mirror room again. With Ron covered in the cloak, too, they had to walk much more slowly the next night. They tried retracing Harry's route from the library, wandering around the dark passageways for nearly an hour.**

"**I'm freezing," said Ron. "Let's forget it and go back."**

"Yes, do that." Tonks said nodding.

"**No!" Harry hissed. "I know it's here somewhere."**

**They passed the ghost of a tall witch gliding in the opposite direction, but saw no one else. just as Ron started moaning that his feet were dead with cold, Harry spotted the suit of armor.**

"**It's here — just here — yes!"**

**They pushed the door open. Harry dropped the cloak from around his shoulders and ran to the mirror.**

**There they were. His mother and father beamed at the sight of him.**

"Poor Harry." Katie said quietly dabbing at her eyes.

**See?" Harry whispered.**

"**I can't see anything."**

"**Look! Look at them all… there are loads of them…"**

"**I can only see you."**

"**Look in it properly, go on, stand where I am."**

**Harry stepped aside, but with Ron in front of the mirror, he couldn't see his family anymore, just Ron in his paisley pajamas.**

**Ron, though, was staring transfixed at his image.**

"**Look at me!" he said.**

"**Can you see all your family standing around you?"**

"Ron's desire will be different." Remus said quietly.

"**No — I'm alone — but I'm different — I look older — and I'm head boy!"**

Percy looked surprised.

Fred snorted. "Head boy?"

"Your deepest desire is to be head boy?" George asked snickering.

"**What?"**

"**I am — I'm wearing the badge like Bill used to — and I'm holding the house cup and the Quidditch cup — I'm Quidditch captain, too."**

"That's a bit better I guess," Fred mumbled.

**Ron tore his eyes away from this splendid sight to look excitedly at Harry.** "**Do you think this mirror shows the future?"**

"**How can it? All my family are dead — let me have another look —"**

"**You had it to yourself all last night, give me a bit more time."**

"**You're only holding the Quidditch cup, what's interesting about that? I want to see my parents."**

"**Don't push me —"**

"It's causing you two to fight," Arthur sighed.

"You two should be getting out of there." Amelia Bones said. "That mirror isn't doing you boys any good."

**A sudden noise outside in the corridor put an end to their discussion.**

**They hadn't realized how loudly they had been talking.**

"**Quick!"**

**Ron threw the cloak back over them as the luminous eyes of Mrs. Norris came round the door.**

"I hate that cat," Neville said quietly.

**Ron and Harry stood quite still, both thinking the same thing — did the cloak work on cats?**

**After what seemed an age, she turned and left.**

"**This isn't safe — she might have gone for Filch, I bet she heard us. Come on."**

**And Ron pulled Harry out of the room.**

**The snow still hadn't melted the next morning.**

"**Want to play chess, Harry?" said Ron**

"**No."**

"**Why don't we go down and visit Hagrid?"**

"**No… you go…"**

"**I know what you're thinking about, Harry, that mirror. Don't go back tonight."**

Many people were now frowning.

"I don't like that mirror." Susan whispered to Hannah who nodded in agreement.

"**Why not?"**

"**I dunno, I've just got a bad feeling about it — and anyway, you've had too many close shaves already.**

**Filch, Snape, and Mrs. Norris are wandering around. So what if they can't see you? What if they walk into you? What if you knock something over?"**

"**You sound like Hermione."**

"**I'm serious, Harry, don't go."**

"Listen to him," several people said quietly.

**But Harry only had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Ron wasn't going to stop him.**

A majority of the hall groaned.

Remus shook his head sadly, he could imagine the pull the mirror would have on Harry.

**That third night he found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didn't meet anyone.**

**And there were his mother and father smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry sank down to sit on the floor in front of the mirror. There was nothing to stop him from staying here all night with his family. Nothing at all.**

"Somebody is going to find him." Hannah said.

Everyone turned to stare at her.

**Except —** "**So — back again, Harry?"**

"Thank goodness," Mrs Malfoy said sighing.

**Harry felt as though his insides had turned to ice. He looked behind him. Sitting on one of the desks by the wall was none other than Albus Dumbledore. Harry must have walked straight past him, so desperate to get to the mirror he hadn't noticed him.**

**"I — I didn't see you, sir."**

"you wouldn't," Sophia muttered

"**Strange how nearsighted being invisible can make you," said Dumbledore, and Harry was relieved to see that he was smiling.**

The adults turned to glare at Dumbledore.

"**So," said Dumbledore, slipping off the desk to sit on the floor with Harry, "you, like hundreds before you, have discovered the delights of the Mirror of Erised."**

Justin snorted. "I wouldn't exactly call becoming obsessed with a mirror a delight." He muttered to Ernie who nodded in agreement at this.

"**I didn't know it was called that, Sir."**

"**But I expect you've realized by now what it does?"**

"**It — well — it shows me my family —"**

"**And it showed your friend Ron himself as head boy."**

"How did you know that?" Susan Bones asked

"**How did you know —?"**

"because he was there watching the whole time the mirror was there for a reason." Sophia said.

"**I don't need a cloak to become invisible," said Dumbledore gently.**

Remus was wondering. _'Why did he have James' cloak?'_

**"Now, can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?"**

**Harry shook his head.**

"**Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help?"**

**Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want…whatever we want…"**

_'I wonder what I would see?'_ Many people around the hall were wondering.

"**Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them."**

All of the Weasley's turned to Ron shocked.

**The mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared.**

"That sounds ominous." Several people muttered

**It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed?"**

**Harry stood up.** "**Sir — Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"**

"**Obviously, you've just done so," Dumbledore smiled. "You may ask me one more thing, however."**

"**What do you see when you look in the mirror?"**

Remus shook his head. "Harry."

"That is a personal question Mr. Potter," Amelia said peering at him and smiled softly seeing him curled up asleep.

"**I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."**

The hall turned to look at Dumbledore as though he'd lost his mind.

**Harry stared.**

"**One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore. "Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."**

**It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful. But then, he thought, as he shoved Scabbers off his pillow, it had been quite a personal question.**

"That's because it was," Remus said.

"That's the end of the chapter who would like to read next?" McGonagall asked

"I will." Remus said summoning the book.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Remus shifted in his seat from everyone looking at him and began reading, **"Nicholas Flamel." **

"Finally!" The Ravenclaw's muttered.

**Dumbledore had convinced Harry not to go looking for the Mirror of Erised again, **

"Good," several people said.

**and for the rest of the Christmas holidays the invisibility cloak stayed folded at the bottom of his trunk.**

"Harry!" The twins yelled shocked.

Sophia just chuckled, those two clearly were a handful.

**Harry wished he could forget what he'd seen in the mirror as easily, but he couldn't. He started having nightmares.**

Sophia sighed and stroked his cheek softly this poor boy has been through so much and no one has cried to save him. Severus was frowning all that time he was tormenting the boy and he was suffering so much he felt a pang of guilt rising up.

**Over and over again he dreamed about his parents disappearing in a flash of green light, while a high voice cackled with laughter.**

Everyone shot Harry pitying looks.

Remus and Sirius both internally cringed and glanced over at Harry he looked so peaceful and happy.

Severus sighed and rubbed his face with his hands.

**"You see, Dumbledore was right, that mirror could drive you mad," said Ron, when Harry told him about these dreams.**

**Hermione, who came back the day before term started, took a different view of things. She was torn between horror at the idea of Harry being out of bed,**

"Of course," Draco sneered.

Several people chuckled at this.

"It was properly the horror I won't get my pay check if the idiots expelled." Neville muttered loud enough for Draco and Luna to hear.

Luna nodded, "We have to make them pay."

"Yep Harry doesn't deserve any of this. It's a good thing he is asleep." Neville said while Draco nodded and all three of them looked at him.

**roaming the school three nights in a row ("If Filch had caught you!"), and disappointment that he hadn't at least found out who Nicolas Flamel was.**

"Oh of course." Fred said slapping his forehead.

"It's OK to sneak out if we find out something Hermione wants to know." George said.

The hall turned as one to glare at her.

**They had almost given up hope of ever finding Flamel in a library book, even though Harry was still sure he'd read the name somewhere. **

**Once term had started, they were back to skimming through books for ten minutes during their breaks. Harry had even less time than the other two, because Quidditch practice had started again.**

The Quidditch nuts perked up.

**Wood was working the team harder than ever. Even the endless rain that had replaced the snow couldn't dampen his spirits. The Weasleys complained that Wood was becoming a fanatic, **

"He was." Alicia, Angelina, Katie, Fred and George complained.

**but Harry was on Wood's side.**

"What?" Alicia, Angelina, Katie, Fred and George shouted.

**If they won their next match, against Hufflepuff, they would overtake Slytherin in the house championship for the first time in seven years. Quite apart from wanting to win, Harry found that he had fewer nightmares when he was tired out after training.**

"Oh," Alicia muttered sadly.

"I guess it wasn't so bad then," Katie said sadly looking over at Harry.

**Then, during one particularly wet and muddy practice session, Wood gave the team a bit of bad news. He'd just gotten very angry with the Weasleys, who kept dive-bombing each other and pretending to fall off their brooms.**

"That's no way to behave during practice!" Charlie exclaimed causing Bill to roll his eyes and the twins had to look away laughing.

"**Will you stop messing around!" he yelled. "That's exactly the sort of thing that'll lose us the match! Snape's refereeing**

"What?" Those who hadn't been there shouted.

"Why would you referee Severus?" Remus asked. "You've never liked Quidditch."

"Yes why?" Moody grunted.

Snape glared at Remus and Moody. "I was told too."

Glares were now directed at Dumbledore who just smirked infuriating people more.

**this time, and he'll be looking for any excuse to knock points off Gryffindor!"**

"Biased git." Several people muttered

**George Weasley really did fall off his broom at these words.**

The hall began laughing.

"**Snape's refereeing?" he spluttered through a mouthful of mud. "When's he ever refereed a Quidditch match? He's not going to be fair if we might overtake Slytherin."**

Severus sneered at them.

**The rest of the team landed next to George to complain, too.**

"Severus calm down, you are horrible to them." Sophia chuckled. He just shot her a glare and turned away. Sophia frowned and turned back to Harry guess she was wrong about him.

"**It's not my fault," said Wood. "We've just got to make sure we play a clean game, so Snape hasn't got an excuse to pick on us."**

**Which was all very well, thought Harry, but he had another reason for not wanting Snape near him while he was playing Quidditch…**

**The rest of the team hung back to talk to one another as usual at the end of practice, but Harry headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where he found Ron and Hermione playing chess.**

**Chess was the only thing Hermione ever lost at, something Harry and Ron thought was very good for her.**

The hall burst out laughing while Hermione was glaring furiously at Harry

"**Don't talk to me for a moment," said Ron when Harry sat down next to him, "I need to concen—" He caught sight of Harry's face.** "**What's the matter with you? You look terrible."**

George and Fred snorted.

**Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire**

**to be a Quidditch referee.**

"**Don't play," said Hermione at once.**

Charlie stared at Hermione as if she's grown three heads. "But its Quidditch. He has to play!"

"**Say you're ill," said Ron.**

"**Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.**

Fred snorted. "You

"**Really break your leg," said Ron.**

"Madam Pomfrey would fix it in a minute," Neville said laughing who nodded smiling.

"**I can't," said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out, Gryffindor can't play at all."**

**At that moment Neville toppled into the common room. How he had managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone's guess, because his legs had been stuck together with what they recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to bunny hop all the way up to Gryffindor tower.**

Several people began laughing but soon shut up from the glares they received.

**Everyone fell over laughing except Hermione, who leapt up and performed the counter curse.**

**Neville's legs sprang apart and he got to his feet, trembling. "What happened?" Hermione asked him, leading him over to sit with Harry and Ron.**

"How can someone be so caring about others sell out the best friend then again it must be part of the insurable no it all act she puts on." Neville said glaring at Hermione who flushed unable to glare back.

The hall gave Neville a round of applause for this comment.

"**Malfoy," said Neville shakily. **"**I met him outside the library. He said he'd been looking for someone to practice that on."**

"Mr. Malfoy!" All of the teachers shouted.

"Me and you are having a very long talk." Severus said glaring at him

"**Go to Professor McGonagall!" Hermione urged Neville. "Report him!"**

"You should have Mr. Longbottom." McGonagall said her lips were thin with disapproval.

Neville shrugged.

"I am sorry Neville I was a complete prat back then." Draco said

Neville looked at him and saw no deception, "Thanks its fine it was awhile ago."

Sophia smiled and nodded at them both proudly.

**Neville shook his head.** "**I don't want more trouble," he mumbled.**

"**You've got to stand up to him, Neville!" said Ron. "He's used to walking all over people, but that's no reason to lie down in front of him and make it easier."**

Glares were sent to Ron.

**"There's no need to tell me I'm not brave enough to be in Gryffindor, Malfoy's already done that," Neville choked out.**

"Don't say that Neville!" Neville's friend yelled, causing said boy to blush.

"The hat put you in Gryffindor for a reason." Dean told him. Neville smiled gratefully at them all, he was Harry's friend now and he needed him.

**Harry felt in the pocket of his robes and pulled out a Chocolate Frog, the very last one from the box Hermione had given him for Christmas. He gave it to Neville, who looked as though he might cry.**

The majority of the girls all turned to smile at Harry but soon turned away when they saw the glare Sophia was sending them.

Remus chuckled and snuffles looked up at him, "I feel sorry for anyone future partner of Harry's imagine trying to get past Lady Rosewood." Remus whispered and the dog barked laughing.

**"You're worth twelve of Malfoy," Harry said. "The Sorting Hat chose you for Gryffindor, didn't it? And where's Malfoy? In stinking Slytherin."**

The adults smiled at Harry while the Slytherin's and Snape glared at him.

Sophia looked up and sighed seeing this, "You do realise the only Slytherin's Harry has anything to do with is Draco and at 11 he assumes you are all the same."

The house turned at one to openly glare at Draco making Sophia chuckle and smirk at him. Draco though thought he deserved it he was horrible he listened to his father to much.

**Neville's lips twitched in a weak smile as he unwrapped the frog.**

"It really did make me feel better," Neville said quietly smiling at Harry.

"**Thanks, Harry… I think I'll go to bed… D'you want the card, you collect them, don't you?"**

**As Neville walked away, Harry looked at the Famous Wizard card.** "**Dumbledore again," he said, "He was the first one I ever —"** **He gasped. He stared at the back of the card.**

Remus smirked knowing what was on the card.

**Then he looked up at Ron and Hermione.** "**I've found him!" he whispered. "I've found Flamel! I told you I'd read the name somewhere before, I read it on the train coming here — listen to this: 'Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel'!"**

"What?" Most of the hall yelled.

"For the love of ..." Charlie exclaimed. "After all that searching, and it was on the back of a bloody chocolate frog card!"

"I can't believe it," Bill said bursting out laughing.

**Hermione jumped to her feet. She hadn't looked so excited since they'd gotten back the marks for their very first piece of homework.**

Many people snorted.

"**Stay there!" she said, and she sprinted up the stairs to the girls' dormitories. Harry and Ron barely had time to exchange mystified looks before she was dashing back, an enormous old book in her arms.**

"**I never thought to look in here!" she whispered excitedly. "I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."**

Many people snorted.

"Light?" George asked incredulously.

"Mental." Several people muttered.

"**Light?" said Ron, but Hermione told him to be quiet until she'd looked something up, and started flicking frantically through the pages, muttering to herself.**

**At last she found what she was looking for.** "**I knew it! I knew it!"**

"**Are we allowed to speak yet?" said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.**

"**Nicolas Flamel," she whispered dramatically, "is the only known maker of the Sorcerer's Stone!"**

"We already know that," Pansy said.

**This didn't have quite the effect she'd expected.**

"**The what?" said Harry and Ron.**

"**Oh, honestly, don't you two read?**

Several of the Gryffindor's rolled there eyes.

**"Look – read that, there."** **She pushed the book toward them, and Harry and Ron read:**

**The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold.**

"Wicked!" Dennis and Colin exclaimed.

**It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.**

"Wow." Many people said in awe.

"That wouldn't be good in certain people's hands," Bill whispered to Charlie who nodded.

**There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).**

"Bloody hell," Fred said quietly.

"That should not of been in a school!" Mrs Malfoy said glaring at Dumbledore and the teachers before speaking, "You all agreed to this why?"

"The headmaster told us to." McGonagall said sighing.

"So what you should all grow a backbone and stop rolling over and agreeing to what Albus bloody Dumbledore says." Mrs Malfoy shot back.

The people in the looked at each other and as one stood up and started clapping. Mrs Malfoy blushed furiously and smiled; while the teachers frowned she was right.

"**See?" said Hermione, when Harry and Ron had finished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"**

**"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."**

_'I wouldn't want it.' _Severus thought but then stopped glancing at Sophia she was immortal and seemed happy enough but turned away remembering he was annoyed with her.

"I wouldn't," Neville said quietly causing Luna and Draco to look at him confused seeing how sad he was.

**And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"**

Several people chuckled at this.

**The next morning in Defense Against the Dark Arts, while copying down different ways of treating werewolf bites, Harry and Ron were still discussing what they'd do with a Sorcerer's Stone if they had one.**

**It wasn't until Ron said he'd buy his own Quidditch team that Harry remembered about Snape and the coming match.**

"**I'm going to play," he told Ron and Hermione. "If I don't, all the Slytherins will think I'm just too scared to face Snape. I'll show them… it'll really wipe the smiles off their faces if we win."**

"Foolish Gryffindor pride," Severus said sneering causing the Gryffindor's to turn and glare at him.

"**Just as long as we're not wiping you off the field," said Hermione.**

Fred snorted.

**As the match drew nearer, however, Harry became more and more nervous, whatever he told Ron and Hermione. **

**The rest of the team wasn't too calm, either. The idea of overtaking Slytherin in the house championship was wonderful, no one had done it for seven years, but would they be allowed to, with such a biased referee?**

The old Gryffindor team smirked, they still won with Snape as a referee.

**Harry didn't know whether he was imagining it or not, but he seemed to keep running into Snape wherever he went. At times, he even wondered whether Snape was following him, trying to catch him on his own.**

Everyone in the room turned to the potions master with raised eyebrows.

Severus snapped. "I was not following him."

Several people started laughing.

**Potions lessons were turning into a sort of weekly torture, Snape was so horrible to Harry.**

The adults all turned to one to stare at Severus.

"You really need to learn to treat the students fairly Severus," Flitwick said.

Sophia didn't look at him she just stared down at Harry sadly, Severus could feel the disappointment rolling off her it made him shift uncomfortably.

**Could Snape possibly know they'd found out about the Sorcerer's Stone?**

**Harry didn't see how he could — yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.**

"It's called legilimency and Professor Snape does indeed know how to do it." Professor McGonagall said.

Amelia frowned and gave Snape a curious glance._ 'He better not be using it on students.'_

**Harry knew, when they wished him good luck outside the locker rooms the next afternoon, that Ron and Hermione were wondering whether they'd ever see him alive again.**

**This wasn't what you'd call comforting. Harry hardly heard a word of Wood's pep talk as he pulled on his Quidditch robes and picked up his Nimbus Two Thousand.**

**Ron and Hermione, meanwhile, had found a place in the stands next to Neville, who couldn't understand why they looked so grim and worried, or why they had both brought their wands to the match.**

Severus turned to glare at Hermione.

**Little did Harry know that Ron and Hermione had been secretly practicing the Leg-Locker Curse.**

Snape scowled. "Do you two know how dangerous that would have been to perform on someone on a broom?"

Ron and Hermione shrugged they didn't care it was all for their pay checks and head boy and girl rolls after all. Hermione just wanted the library Dumbledore promised her.

**They'd gotten the idea from Malfoy using it on Neville, and were ready to use it on Snape if he showed any sign of wanting to hurt Harry.**

The room burst out laughing.

**"Now, don't forget, it's Locomotor Mortis," Hermione muttered as Ron slipped his wand up his sleeve.**

"**I know," Ron snapped. "Don't nag."**

The twins snickered.

**Back in the locker room, Wood had taken Harry aside.**

"**Don't want to pressure you, Potter, but if we ever need an early capture of the Snitch it's now. Finish the game before Snape can favor Hufflepuff too much."**

"Smart," Charlie said.

"**The whole school's out there!" said Fred Weasley, peering out of the door. "Even — blimey — Dumbledore's come to watch!"**

**Harry's heart did a somersault.** "**Dumbledore?" he said, dashing to the door to make sure. Fred was right. There was no mistaking that silver beard.**

Dumbledore let out a soft chuckle and stroked his beard.

**Harry could have laughed out loud with relief, he was safe. There was simply no way that Snape would dare to try to hurt him if Dumbledore was watching.**

Dumbledore glared at this that woman he thought had ruined that now he needed a new plan to get his weapon back.

**Perhaps that was why Snape was looking so angry as the teams marched onto the field, something that Ron noticed, too.**

Severus was just glaring at the book.

"**I've never seen Snape look so mean," he told Hermione.**

**"Look — they're off. Ouch!"**

**Someone had poked Ron in the back of the head. **

**It was Malfoy.**

"Here we go again." Charlie said shaking his head.

"Why doesn't anyone intervene?" Bill asked.

"**Oh, sorry, Weasley, didn't see you there."**

"Sure you didn't." Fred said

**Malfoy grinned broadly at Crabbe and Goyle.** "**Wonder how long Potter's going to stay on his broom this time? Anyone want a bet? What about you, Weasley?"**

**Ron didn't answer; Snape had just awarded Hufflepuff a penalty because George Weasley had hit a Bludger at him.**

George smiled happily at this.

**Hermione, who had all her fingers crossed in her lap, was squinting fixedly at Harry, who was circling the game like a hawk, looking for the Snitch.**

"**You know how I think they choose people for the Gryffindor team?" said Malfoy loudly a few minutes later, as Snape awarded Hufflepuff another penalty for no reason at all.**

"Really Severus," McGonagall huffed.

Severus just stared at her blankly.

**"It's people they feel sorry for. See, there's Potter, who's got no parents,**

Snuffles was growling angrily towards Draco along with the rest of the room.

**then there's the Weasleys, who've got no money**

The glares got stronger and Draco moved closer to his parents.

— **you should be on the team, Longbottom, you've got no brains."**

**Neville went bright red but turned in his seat to face Malfoy.**

"**I'm worth twelve of you, Malfoy," he stammered.**

"You tell him Neville!" The Gryffindors cheered.

Neville blushed.

**Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle howled with laughter, but Ron, still not daring to take his eyes from the game, said, "You tell him, Neville."**

"**Longbottom, if brains were gold you'd be poorer than Weasley, and that's saying something."**

Draco was shrinking back from all the glares, even Luna was glaring at him.

**Ron's nerves were already stretched to the breaking point with anxiety about Harry.**

"**I'm warning you, Malfoy — one more word—"**

"Oh just hex him already!" Charlie snapped.

"**Ron!" said Hermione suddenly, "Harry —"**

"**What? Where?"**

**Harry had suddenly gone into a spectacular dive, which drew gasps and cheers from the crowd. Hermione stood up, her crossed fingers in her mouth, as Harry streaked toward the ground like a bullet.**

"Go Harry!" The Gryffindors cheered.

"**You're in luck, Weasley, Potter's obviously spotted some money on the ground!" said Malfoy.**

**Ron snapped. Before Malfoy knew what was happening, Ron was on top of him, wrestling him to the ground.**

The adults in the room sent Ron disapproving looks while the students cheered.

**Neville hesitated, then clambered over the back of his seat to help.**

"Go Neville!" The Gryffindors cheered.

Neville blushed bright scarlet.

"**Come on, Harry!" Hermione screamed, leaping onto her seat to watch as Harry sped straight at Snape — she didn't even notice Malfoy and Ron rolling around under her seat, or the scuffles and yelps coming from the whirl of fists that was Neville, Crabbe, and Goyle.**

Several people snorted.

**Up in the air, Snape turned on his broomstick just in time to see something scarlet shoot past him, missing him by inches — **

"Darn." Fred said shaking his head.

"If only you would've hit him." George said.

**the next second, Harry had pulled out of the dive, his arm raised in triumph, the Snitch clasped in his hand.**

The Gryffindors erupted into cheers.

**The stands erupted; it had to be a record, no one could ever remember the Snitch being caught so quickly.**

"How long?" Charlie asked.

"I believe it was six minutes and two seconds." Hooch said smiling proudly.

Charlie turned to stare at Harry in shock. "He really should go pro."

Harry's Quidditch team all nodded in agreement.

"**Ron! Ron! Where are you? The game's over! Harry's won! We've won! Gryffindor is in the lead!" shrieked Hermione, dancing up and down on her seat and hugging Parvarti Patil in the row in front.**

**Harry jumped off his broom, a foot from the ground. He couldn't believe it. He'd done it, the game was over; it had barely lasted five minutes. As Gryffindors came spilling onto the field, he saw Snape land nearby, white-faced and tight-lipped, then Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Dumbledore's smiling face.**

"**Well done," said Dumbledore quietly, so that only Harry could hear. "Nice to see you haven't been brooding about that mirror… been keeping busy… excellent…"**

**Snape spat bitterly on the ground.**

"Ew." Several girls said disgusted.

**Harry left the locker room alone some time later, to take his Nimbus Two Thousand back to the broom shed. He couldn't ever remember feeling happier. He'd really done something to be proud of now – no one could say he was just a famous name any more.**

"You've done a lot to be proud of," Remus said smiling and snuffles barked in agreement.

**The evening air had never smelled so sweet. He walked over the damp grass, reliving the last hour in his head, which was a happy blur: Gryffindors running to lift him onto their shoulders; Ron and Hermione in the distance, jumping up and down, Ron cheering through a heavy nosebleed.**

**Harry had reached the shed. He leaned against the wooden door and looked up at Hogwarts, with its windows glowing red in the setting sun. Gryffindor in the lead. He'd done it, he'd shown Snape…**

**And speaking of Snape…**

Severus glared at Harry that boy really needed to know when to mind his own business.

**A hooded figure came swiftly down the front steps of the castle. Clearly not wanting to be seen, it walked as fast as possible toward the forbidden forest. Harry's victory faded from his mind as he watched. He recognized the figure's prowling walk. Snape, sneaking into the forest while everyone else was at dinner — what was going on?**

Some people shot Snape suspicious looks. Severus was furious with all the looks he was getting.

Sophia couldn't blame them the man didn't make it easy for people to trust him.

**Harry jumped back on his Nimbus Two Thousand and took off. Gliding silently over the castle he saw Snape enter the forest at a run. He followed.**

Most of the hall groaned.

Severus looked as though he wanted to hex Harry.

**The trees were so thick he couldn't see where Snape had gone. He flew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top branches of trees until he heard voices. He glided toward them and landed noiselessly in a towering beech tree.**

**He climbed carefully along one of the branches, holding tight to his broomstick, trying to see through the leaves.**

**Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape, but he wasn't alone. Quirrell was there, too.**

"You do seem to have an awful lot of one on one conversations with other men in secluded places," George said trying to keep a straight face.

Everyone turned to look at him in shock.

"I can't believe you just said that." Fred whispered in awe.

"Weasley!" Severus shouted. Sophia was the first to burst out laughing she couldn't help herself tears rolled down her cheeks she was laughing so hard. Severus just shot her a look.

**Harry couldn't make out the look on his face, but he was stuttering worse than ever. Harry strained to catch what they were saying.**

"… **d-don't know why you wanted t-t-to meet here of all p-places, Severus…"**

"So he doesn't get caught again?" George asked in an innocent voice causing people to chuckle.

"**Oh, I thought we'd keep this private," said Snape, **

Fred and George wiggled their eye brows suggestively causing the Gryffindor boys around them to snicker and the girls to roll their eyes. Sophia was still quietly laughing watching them.

**his voice icy. **"**Students aren't supposed to know about the Sorcerer's Stone, after all."**

**Harry leaned forward. Quirrell was mumbling something. Snape interrupted him.**

"**Have you found out how to get past that beast of Hagrid's yet?"**

"**B-b-but Severus, I —"**

"**You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell," said Snape, taking a step toward him.**

"That just made you seem like the bad guy," Kingsley pointed out.

"I wasn't expecting anyone to be listening." Severus said still glaring at George

"**I-I don't know what you—"**

"**You know perfectly well what I mean."**

**An owl hooted loudly, and Harry nearly fell out of the tree. **

**He steadied himself in time to hear Snape say, "— your little bit of hocus-pocus. I'm waiting."**

"**B-but I d-d-don't —"**

"Bloody stutter was annoying," Dean muttered

"**Very well," Snape cut in. "We'll have another little chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where your loyalties lie."**

**He threw his cloak over his head and strode out of the clearing. It was almost dark now, but Harry could see Quirrell, standing quite still as though he was petrified.**

**Harry, where have you been?" Hermione squeaked.**

"**We won! You won! We won!" shouted Ron, thumping Harry on the back. "And I gave Malfoy a black eye, and Neville tried to take on Crabbe and Goyle single-handed! **

"Go Nev." Dean said looking impressed causing Neville to blush.

**He's still out cold but Madam Pomfrey says he'll be all right,** **talk about showing Slytherin! **

**Everyone's waiting for you in the common room, we're having a party, Fred and George stole some cakes and stuff from the kitchens."**

"Students aren't allowed in the kitchens." Umbridge said and the students glared at her.

"**Never mind that now," said Harry breathlessly. "Let's find an empty room, you wait 'til you hear this…"**

"Of course you just had to tell them everything immediately didn't you? Those loyalty charms really working aren't they," Neville stated amused.

**He made sure Peeves wasn't inside before shutting the door behind them, **

"Smart." Remus said nodding his head, Snuffles barked in agreement.

**then he told them what he'd seen and heard.**

"**So we were right, it is the Sorcerer's Stone, and Snape's trying to force Quirrell to help him get it. **

Severus sneered. "If I was trying to steal the stone, Quirrell would be the last person I would've asked for help."

**He asked if he knew how to get past Fluffy — and he said something about Quirrell's 'hocus pocus' — I reckon there are other things guarding the stone apart from Fluffy, loads of enchantments, probably,** **and Quirrell would have done some anti-Dark Arts spell that Snape needs to break through —"**

"I'm sure Severus would be able to get through anything Quirrell would've put up," McGonagall said. Severus glanced at her smiling slightly.

"**So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" said Hermione in alarm.**

"**It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron.**

The hall burst out laughing at this.

"That's the end of the chapter," Remus said.

"I think we should have dinner and then read the next three chapters of book 1 and then all head to bed." Sophia said.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

All around the hall students and adults could be heard lifting their plates and making their dinner requests.

Sophia gently shook Harry awake, "Harry hunni wake up its time for dinner." Harry sat up and rubbed his eyes scanning the room, he took his plate off Sophia ordering soup and a bread roll again he wasn't that hungry. Sophia smiled at him and ordered chicken breast with mash and sweet corn.

They sat eating and Sophia filled in him on everything that had happened in the books so far.

"I'm glad I was asleep I would hate to see their pity." Harry said quietly.

"I no sweetheart but many people do care about you." Sophia said

"They have a funny way of showing it; you are the only person who has actually saved me." Harry said frowning stirring his soup.

Sophia sighed, "Harry I will always be here for you as long as you want me to be I promise I will never leave. I have a lot planned for us when we finish these books."

Harry had a huge smile on his face, "like what and thank you."

Sophia squeezed his hand, "well I was thinking of a stopover in Milan for shopping and then how about we travel the world between now and July I can teach you boys and Luna if she comes as we travel."

Harry's whole face lit up, "Are you serious I get to have a holiday."

Sophia looked at Harry sadly, "Of course sweetheart now eat up." Harry smiled and nodded and began eating. Sophia watched him for several minutes before turning back to her own food. Severus was listening to them as he ate his own food he saw the hope and excitement in Harry's face and frowned he really needed to apologise he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

20 minutes later everyone had finished eating and were looking at Sophia.

"Ok who would like to read next?" Sophia asked. Tonks was bouncing up and down, "I will." She shouted and everyone close to her chuckled as she levitated the book over to herself.

Sophia turned to Harry and gave him two potions, "Drink these."

"What are they?" Harry asked taking them off her.

"One is a nutrient potion and the other is a mild sleeping draft." Sophia said

"But I've slept all day." Harry moaned

"Yes but I don't want you to have to hear the next three chapters and with all the nightmares and visions lately you need the sleep so take them." She said smirking at him; Harry grumbled but took them and curled back up against Sophia pulling the blanket around him. She casted the silencing charm over him and stroked his cheek softly, "sweet dreams Harry." She whispered.

Tonks began reading,** "The Forbidden Forest."**

"What?" Remus and Mrs Malfoy yelled.

"Oh yes we skipped, Hagrid had a Dragon so Harry, Ron and Hermione sent a letter to Charlie to collect it. Long story short Draco found out and Ron got bit by the Dragon. Hermione and Harry were caught on their way back from dropping of the Dragon and Draco and Neville were caught for being out of bed from McGonagall. They lost 50 points each and she gave them detention. I think that sums it up." Sophia said smiling

"You sent my cub/baby into the forbidden forest." Remus and Mrs Malfoy shouted at McGonagall. Who paled she couldn't believe there was actually a Dragon she owed them an apology no wonder Harry refuses to tell an adult when they don't believe him.

**Things couldn't have been worse.**

Sophia sighed.

**Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other. Hermione was trembling. Excuses, alibis, and wild cover-up stories chased each other around Harry's brain, each more feeble than the last.**

Fred and George laughed. "You really need to learn to lie better.

George nodded. "Your alibi's usually suck." He added.

The teachers glared at them.

**He couldn't see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the cloak?**

"Careless." Moody grunted. "That's how you get killed." Snuffles whimpered at the thought of Harry getting killed.

"It's perfectly understandable." Remus said with a sigh. "They were eleven and they were excited." Tonks rolled her eyes trying to hide her laugh.

**There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes.**

"You're right about that." McGonagall said.

**Add Norbert and the invisibility cloak, and they might as well be packing their bags already.**

"You won't be expelled for being out past curfew." Sprout said. "You would most likely lose some points and get a detention."

**Had Harry thought that things couldn't have been worse? He was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.**

"Neville?" The room shouted Neville blushed.

"I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't sneak out." Dean muttered to Seamus who nodded in agreement.

**"Harry!" Neville burst out, the moment he saw the other two. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag—"**

"Neville." The room groaned, and Neville blushed.

**Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but Professor McGonagall had seen.**

"She always sees everything," Remus said.

"You should know." McGonagall said giving Remus a stern look.

**She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.**

The twins snorted.

**"I would never have believed it of any of you.**

**Mr** **Filch says you were up in the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."**

**It was the first time Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher's question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.**

**"I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on," said Professor McGonagall. "It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble.**

**I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"**

"Neville you were very brave to try and warn your friend I'm proud of you." Madam Longbottom said peering at him.

"Thanks gran," Neville said smiling.

**Harry caught Neville's eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true, because Neville was looking stunned and hurt.**

"I didn't believe you two would actually do that." Neville said. "I was just so confused."

**Poor, blundering Neville—Harry knew what it must have cost him to try and find them in the dark, to warn them.**

Neville started laughing.

**"I'm disgusted," said Professor McGonagall. "Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before!**

Remus snorted. "Really Minerva?"

"Well I certainly didn't want to say since your father and his friends were in school. Mr. Potter doesn't need anymore encouraging." McGonagall said giving Remus a stern look.

The half burst out laughing watching Remus trying to look innocent.

**You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr. Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this.**

"That was a little harsh," Dean said.

"Low blow," Neville said

**All three of you will receive detentions—yes, you too, Mr. Longbottom, nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days, it's very dangerous—and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."**

"Fifty?" Several students shouted incredulously.

**Fifty?" Harry gasped—they would lose the lead, the lead he'd won in the last Quidditch match.**

Remus shook his head. "It's best not to say anything when she's that mad."

**"Fifty points **_**each**_**," said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long, pointed nose.**

"What?" Most of the students in the hall yelled.

"That was a tad bit harsh Minerva," Sprout said.

"I know." McGonagall sighed. "I was just so mad at the time, four students out in one night." She shook her head.

"Wait." Angelina said looking thoughtful. "That's when we woke up and we were missing all of those points."

Neville nodded and the Gryffindor's looked ashamed.

**"Professor—please—"**

**"You **_**can't—**_**"**

Snuffles winced.

**"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I've never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students."**

**A hundred and fifty points lost.**

"That's a lot just for being out past curfew," Hannah said.

**That put Gryffindor in last place. In one night, they'd ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the house cup. Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. How could they ever make up for this?**

**Harry didn't sleep all night. He could hear Neville sobbing into his pillow for what seemed like hours.**

Neville turned bright red.

**Harry couldn't think of anything to say to comfort him. He knew Neville, like himself, was dreading the dawn. What would happen when the rest of Gryffindor found out what they'd done?**

The Gryffindors who were there when that happened looked ashamed. They remember ignoring them, and now that they know it was for a friend, they felt guilty.

**At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hourglasses that recorded the house points the next day thought there'd been a mistake. How could they suddenly have a hundred and fifty points fewer than yesterday? And then the story started to spread: Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter, their hero of two Quidditch matches, had lost them all those points, him and a couple of other stupid first years.**

**From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated.**

"What?" McGonagall stopped reading to ask. "Why?"

Those who had been there looked down guiltily.

Remus narrowed his eyes. "What did you guys do?"

**Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the house cup.**

**Everywhere Harry went, people pointed and didn't trouble to lower their voices as they insulted him.**

The adults looked angry.

"That is no way to treat your fellow students." Sprout said in a stern voice.

"I am ashamed of all of you," Flitwick said.

**Slytherins, on the other hand, clapped as he walked past them, whistling and cheering, "Thanks Potter, we owe you one!"**

"I expect it from the Slytherins but not the Puff's," Tonks said shaking her head.

**Only Ron stood by him.**

Many people glared at Ron here.

**"They'll all forget this in a few weeks. Fred and George have lost loads of points in all the time they've been here, and people still like them."**

**"They've never lost a hundred and fifty points in one go, though, have they?" said Harry miserably.**

**"Well—no," Ron admitted.**

**It was a bit late to repair the damage, but Harry swore to himself not to meddle in things that weren't his business from now on.**

Several people snorted.

**He'd had it with sneaking around and spying.**

Fred and George snorted.

**He felt so ashamed of himself that he went to Wood and offered to resign from the Quidditch team.**

"Are you mental?" Charlie gasped out. "How is that going to help?"

**"**_**Resign?**_**" Wood thundered. "What good'll that do? How are we going to get any points back if we can't win at Quidditch?"**

**But even Quidditch had lost its fun. The rest of the team wouldn't speak to Harry during practice, and if they had to speak about him, they called him "the Seeker."**

The quidditch team looked ashamed.

**Hermione and Neville were suffering, too. They didn't have as bad a time as Harry, because they weren't as well-known, but nobody would speak to them, either. Hermione had stopped drawing attention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence.**

McGonagall shook her head. "I'm disgusted that students would treat their fellow housemates like that."

This caused everyone to look even more ashamed.

**Harry was almost glad that the exams weren't far away. All the studying he had to do kept his mind off his misery.**

**He, Ron, and Hermione kept to themselves, working late into the night, trying to remember the ingredients in complicated potions, learn charms and spells by heart, memorize the dates of magical discoveries and goblin rebellions...**

**Then, about a week before the exams were due to start, Harry's new resolution not to interfere in anything that didn't concern him was put to an unexpected test.**

"Wow." Tonks said. "I'm genuinely surprised you lasted that long."

**Walking back from the library on his own one afternoon, he heard somebody whimpering from a classroom up ahead. As he drew closer, he heard Quirrell's voice.**

**"No—no—not again, please—"**

"What's going on?" Colin asked confused.

Moody and Amelia looked at the book curiously.

**It sounded as though someone was threatening him. Harry moved closer.**

**"All right—all right—" he heard Quirrell sob.**

**Next second, Quirrell came hurrying out of the classroom straightening his turban.**

Moody raised an eyebrow at that.

**He was pale and looked as though he was about to cry. He strode out of sight; Harry didn't think Quirrell had even noticed him. He waited until Quirrell's footsteps had disappeared, then peered into the classroom.**

**It was empty,**

"Where did the person threatening him go?" Several people said.

**but a door stood ajar at the other end.**

**Harry was halfway toward it before he remembered what he'd promised himself about not meddling.**

"You remembered that a little to late." Remus said amused. "I'm pretty sure eavesdropping counts as meddling."

The hall started to snicker and Sophia looked amused.

**All the same, he'd have gambled twelve Philosopher's Stones that Snape had just left the room,** **and from what Harry had just heard, Snape would be walking with a new spring in his step—**

Several people snickered picturing Snape walking with a spring in his step and Severus scowled at them.

**Quirrell seemed to have given in at last.**

**Harry went back to the library, where Hermione was testing Ron on Astronomy. Harry told them what he'd heard.**

Arthur sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

**"Snape's done it, then!" said Ron. "If Quirrell's told him how to break his Anti-Dark Force spell—"**

The hall burst into laughter.

**"There's still Fluffy, though," said Hermione.**

"I still can't believe that things name is Fluffy," Lavender said in an undertone.

**"Maybe Snape's found out how to get past him without asking Hagrid," said Ron, looking up at the thousands of books surrounding them. "I bet there's a book somewhere in here telling you how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do, Harry?"**

**The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron's eyes,** **but Hermione answered before Harry could.**

**"Go to Dumbledore. That's what we should have done ages ago.**

"He would have told you all was well with that dam twinkle in his eye and sent you on the way with a nice compulsion spell to go protect the stone." Sophia said smirking at Dumbledore who was bright red in anger.

The hall glared at Dumbledore including the staff.

**If we try anything ourselves we'll be thrown out for sure."**

"I doubt that," Draco said under his breath.

**"But we've got no **_**proof**_**!" said Harry. "Quirrell's too scared to back us up. Snape's only got to say he doesn't know how the troll got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third floor—who do you think they'll believe, him or us? It's not exactly a secret we hate him, Dumbledore'll think we made it up to get him sacked.**

**Filch wouldn't help us if his life depended on it, he's too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the better, he'll think.**

**And don't forget, we're not supposed to know about the Stone or Fluffy. That'll take a lot of explaining."**

**Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn't.**

**"If we just do a bit of poking around—"**

The teachers glared at Ron.

**"No," said Harry flatly, "we've done enough poking around."**

A flicker of shock crossed Severus face.

**He pulled a map of Jupiter toward him and started to learn the names of its moons.**

**The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Hermione, and Neville at the breakfast table. They were all the same:**

_**Your detention will take place at eleven o'clock tonight.**_

_**Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.**_

_**Professor McGonagall**_

That's a bit late for a detention." Mrs Malfoy murmured to her husband who nodded. "They're just children."

_'I have a bad feeling about this.' _Sirius thought.

**Harry had forgotten they still had detentions to do in the furor over the points they'd lost. He half expected Hermione to complain that this was a whole night of studying lost, but she didn't say a word. Like Harry, she felt they deserved what they'd got.**

**At eleven o'clock that night, they said good-bye to Ron in the common room and went down to the entrance hall with Neville. Filch was already there—and so was Malfoy. Harry had also forgotten that Malfoy had gotten a detention, too.**

Draco suppressed a shutter, that was one of the worst nights of his life.

**"Follow me," said Filch, lighting a lamp and leading them outside.**

Glares were sent to McGonagall for allowing this.

**I bet you'll think twice about breaking a school rule again, won't you, eh?" he said, leering at them. "Oh yes... hard work and pain are the best teachers if you ask me... It's just a pity they let the old punishments die out... hang you by your wrists from the ceiling for a few days,**

"I'd like to hang him by his wrists, see how he likes it," Charlie muttered.

"He really shouldn't talk to the students like that," Mr Weasley said.

**I've got the chains still in my office, keep 'em well oiled in case they're ever needed...**

The minister was glaring at him.

**Right, off we go, and don't think of running off, now, it'll be worse for you if you do."**

Snuffles was glaring and quietly growling at Filch.

**They marched off across the dark grounds. Neville kept sniffing. Harry wondered what their punishment was going to be. It must be something really horrible, or Filch wouldn't be sounding so delighted.**

**The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness. Ahead, Harry could see the lighted windows of Hagrid's hut. Then they heard a distant shout.**

**"Is that you, Filch? Hurry up, I want ter get started."**

**Harry's heart rose; if they were going to be working with Hagrid it wouldn't be so bad.**

Hagrid smiled, glad that Harry trusted him.

Neville shuddered.

**His relief must have showed in his face, because Filch said, "I suppose you think you'll be enjoying yourself with that oaf? Well, think again, boy—it's into the forest you're going and I'm much mistaken if you'll all come out in one piece."**

"Argus!" The teachers yelled.

"That is no way to talk to students," Fudge said.

**At this, Neville let out a little moan, and Malfoy stopped dead in his tracks.**

"For all the crap he talks, he sure is a wimp," Dean said. Those around him at the Gryffindor table who heard snickered.

**"The forest?" he repeated, and he didn't sound quite as cool as usual. "We can't go in there at night—there's all sorts of things in there—werewolves, I heard."**

**Neville clutched the sleeve of Harry's robe and made a choking noise.**

Neville's cheeks tinged pink.

**"That's your problem, isn't it?" said Filch, his voice cracking with glee. "Should've thought of them werewolves before you got in trouble, shouldn't you?"**

Bill and Charlie shot glares at Filch.

**Hagrid came striding toward them out of the dark, Fang at his heel. He was carrying his large crossbow, and a quiver of arrows hung over his shoulder.**

The student all began to look concerned.

**"Abou' time," he said. "I bin waitin' fer half an hour already. All right, Harry, Hermione?"**

**"I shouldn't be too friendly to them, Hagrid," said Filch coldly, they're here to be punished, after all."**

**"That's why yer late, is it?" said Hagrid, frowning at Filch. "Bin lecturin' them, eh? 'Snot your place ter do that. Yeh've done yer bit, I'll take over from here."**

"You tell him Hagrid," Charlie said.

**"I'll be back at dawn," said Filch, "for what's left of them,"**

Many glares were sent to Filch who scowled back.

**he added nastily, and he turned and started back toward the castle, his lamp bobbing away in the darkness.**

Everyone was looking at the book apprehensively.

**Malfoy now turned to Hagrid.** **"I'm not going in that forest," he said, and Harry was pleased to hear the note of panic in his voice.**

**"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," said Hagrid fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yehve got ter pay fer it."**

**"But this is servant stuff, it's not for students to do. I thought we'd be copying lines or something, if my father knew I was doing this, he'd—"**

Many students rolled their eyes.

Severus rolled his eyes.

Mr Malfoy looked at his soon, "I would tell you to grow up and stop acting so foolish." Draco looked down ashamed.

**"—tell yer that's how it is at Hogwarts,"** **Hagrid growled. "Copyin' lines! What good's that ter anyone. Yeh'll do summat useful or yeh'll get out. If yeh think yer father'd rather you were expelled, then get back off ter the castle an' pack. Go on."**

**Malfoy didn't move. He looked at Hagrid furiously, but then dropped his gaze.**

Hagrid smiled.

**"Right then," said Hagrid, "now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. Follow me over here a moment."**

**He led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earth track that disappeared into the thick black trees. A light breeze lifted their hair as they looked into the forest.**

**"Look there," said Hagrid, "see that stuff shinin' on the ground? Silvery stuff? That's unicorn blood. There's a unicorn in there bin hurt badly by summat.**

Gasps were heard around the room.

"But what in the world could hurt a unicorn?" Tonks asked faintly.

"Hardly anything can catch one, and for certain nothing that lives in the forest." Remus said.

**This is the second time in a week. I found one dead last Wednesday. We're gonna try an' find the poor thing. We might have ter put it out of its misery."**

**Most of the girls were starting to tear up.**

"Poor unicorn," Luna whispered the dreamy look vanishing.

**"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" said Malfoy, unable to keep the fear out of his voice.**

**"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang,"** **said Hagrid. "An' keep ter the path. Right, now, we're gonna split inter two parties an' follow the trail in diff'rent directions.**

"No!" Many people yelled.

**There's blood all over the place, it must've bin staggerin' around since last night at least."**

**"I want Fang," said Malfoy quickly, looking at Fang's long teeth.**

"Fang's a coward." Fred said.

George nodded his head in agreement. "He'll run at the first sign of danger."

"I know that now, but I didn't then did I?" Draco said shaking slightly.

**"All right, but I warn yeh, he's a coward,"**

**said Hagrid. " So me, Harry, an' Hermione'll go one way an' Draco, Neville, an' Fang'll go the other.**

Many people groaned.

**Now, if any of us finds the unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? Get yer wands out an' practice now— that's it—an' if anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh—so, be careful—let's go."**

**The forest was black and silent.** **A little way into it they reached a fork in the earth path, and Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid took the left path while Malfoy, Neville, and Fang took the right.**

The room was growing tense, everyone was leaning forward in their seats waiting to see what would happen.

**They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves.**

**Harry saw that Hagrid looked very worried.**

**"Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns?" Harry asked.**

Remus raised his eyebrows at Harry and chuckled.

**"Not fast enough," said Hagrid. "It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before."**

Those who didn't know this before looked even more nervous.

**They walked past a mossy tree stump. Harry could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.**

**"You all right, Hermione?" Hagrid whispered. "Don' worry, it can't've gone far if it's this badly hurt, an' then we'll be able ter—GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"**

"What?" Everyone yelled.

**Hagrid seized Harry and Hermione and hoisted them off the path behind a towering oak. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire. The three of them listened. Something was slithering over dead leaves nearby: it sounded like a cloak trailing along the ground.**

**Hagrid was squinting up the dark path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.**

**"I knew it, " he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."**

"Then get out of there," Bill shouted loosing himself in the book.

**"A werewolf?" Harry suggested.**

Remus shot Harry an exasperated look.

**"That wasn' no werewolf an' it wasn' no unicorn, neither," said Hagrid grimly. "Right, follow me, but careful, now."**

**They walked more slowly, ears straining for the faintest sound. Suddenly, in a clearing ahead, something definitely moved.**

The room tensed even more, some people were sending them worried glances.

**"Who's there?" Hagrid called. "Show yerself—I'm armed!"**

**And into the clearing came—was it a man, or a horse?**

**To the waist, a man, with red hair and beard, but below that was a horse's gleaming chestnut body with a long, reddish tail. Harry and Hermione's jaws dropped.**

**"Oh, it's you, Ronan," said Hagrid in relief. "How are yeh?"**

**He walked forward and shook the centaur's hand.**

**"Good evening to you, Hagrid," said Ronan. He had a deep, sorrowful voice. "Were you going to shoot me?"**

**"Can't be too careful, Ronan," said Hagrid, patting his crossbow. "There's summat bad loose in this forest. This is Harry Potter an' Hermione Granger, by the way. Students up at the school. An' this is Ronan, you two. He's a centaur."**

**"We'd noticed," said Hermione faintly.**

Several people chuckled.

**"Good evening," said Ronan. "Students, are you? And do you learn much, up at the school?"**

**"Erm—"**

**"A bit," said Hermione timidly.**

Many people snorted.

**"A bit. Well, that's something." Ronan sighed. He flung back his head and stared at the sky. "Mars is bright tonight."**

"Mars represents war," Luna said and everyone shifted uncomfortably.

**"Yeah," said Hagrid, glancing up, too. "Listen, I'm glad we've run inter yeh, Ronan, 'cause there's a unicorn bin hurt—you seen anythin'?"**

**Ronan didn't answer immediately. He stared unblinkingly upward, then sighed again.**

**"Always the innocent are the first victims," he said. "So it has been for ages past, so it is now."**

Sophia sighed, "The innocent are always first to fall."

Many bowed their heads in respect to those who had been lost.

**"Yeah," said Hagrid, "but have yeh seen anythin', Ronan? Anythin' unusual?"**

**"Mars is bright tonight," Ronan repeated, while Hagrid watched him impatiently. "Unusually bright."**

Hagrid sighed. "Never try getting anything out of a centaur."

**"Yeah, but I was meanin' anythin' unusual a bit nearer home, said Hagrid. "So yeh haven't noticed anythin' strange?"**

**Yet again, Ronan took a while to answer. At last, he said, "The forest hides many secrets."**

**A movement in the trees behind Ronan made Hagrid raise his bow again, but it was only a second centaur, black-haired and -bodied and wilder-looking than Ronan.**

**"Hullo, Bane," said Hagrid. "All right?"**

**"Good evening, Hagrid, I hope you are well?"**

**"Well enough. Look, I've jus' bin askin' Ronan, you seen anythin' odd in here lately? There's a unicorn bin injured—would yeh know anythin' about it?"**

"You're just wasting time." Moody growled.

**Bane walked over to stand next to Ronan. He looked skyward.**

**"Mars is bright tonight," he said simply.**

"For Merlin's sake," Charlie said

**"We've heard," said Hagrid grumpily. "Well, if either of you do see anythin', let me know, won't yeh? We'll be off, then."**

**Harry and Hermione followed him out of the clearing, staring over their shoulders at Ronan and Bane until the trees blocked their view.**

**"Never," said Hagrid irritably, "try an' get a straight answer out of a centaur. Ruddy stargazers. Not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon."**

Fred and George snickered.

**"Are there many of **_**them**_** in here?" asked Hermione.**

**"Oh, a fair few... Keep themselves to themselves mostly, but they're good enough about turnin' up if ever I want a word. They're deep, mind, centaurs... they know things... jus' don' let on much."**

**"D'you think that was a centaur we heard earlier?" said Harry.**

**"Did that sound like hooves to you? Nah, if yeh ask me, that was what's bin killin' the unicorns—never heard anythin' like it before."**

**They walked on through the dense, dark trees. Harry kept looking nervously over his shoulder. He had the nasty feeling they were being watched. He was very glad they had Hagrid and his crossbow with them. They had just passed a bend in the path when Hermione grabbed Hagrid's arm.**

"What's happening?" Mrs Malfoy said gripping onto Draco.

**"Hagrid! Look! Red sparks, the others are in trouble!"**

"Oh no!" Many girls shouted.

The room began more tense than ever.

**"You two wait here!" Hagrid shouted. "Stay on the path, I'll come back for yeh!"**

Loud groans were heard all around the room.

**They heard him crashing away through the undergrowth and stood looking at each other, very scared, until they couldn't hear anything but the rustling of leaves around them.**

**"You don't think they've been hurt, do you?" whispered Hermione.**

**"I don't care if Malfoy has, but if something's got Neville... it's our fault he's here in the first place."**

Neville smiled but Draco frowned he was to blame.

**The minutes dragged by. Their ears seemed sharper than usual. Harry's seemed to be picking up every sigh of the wind, every cracking twig.**

"Good senses," Moody grunted.

**What was going on? Where were the others?**

**At last, a great crunching noise announced Hagrid's return. Malfoy, Neville, and Fang were with him. Hagrid was fuming. Malfoy, it seemed, had sneaked up behind Neville and grabbed him as a joke. Neville had panicked and sent up the sparks.**

The students turned to glare at a pink Draco.

"Mr. Malfoy!" All the adults yelled.

Snape gave Draco a stern look.

**"We'll be lucky ter catch anythin' now, with the racket you two were makin'. Right, we're changin' groups—Neville, you stay with me an' Hermione, Harry, you go with Fang an' this idiot.**

**I'm sorry," Hagrid added in a whisper to Harry, "but he'll have a harder time frightenin' you, an' we've gotta get this done."**

"That's true," many people muttered.

**So Harry set off into the heart of the forest with Malfoy and Fang. They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick.**

**Harry thought the blood seemed to be getting thicker. There were splashes on the roots of a tree, as though the poor creature had been thrashing around in pain close by. Harry could see a clearing ahead, through the tangled branches of an ancient oak.**

"You're deep in the forest." Remus said looking worried.

Snuffles whimpered.

**"Look—" he murmured, holding out his arm to stop Malfoy.**

**Something bright white was gleaming on the ground. They inched closer.**

**It was the unicorn all right, and it was dead. Harry had never seen anything so beautiful and sad. Its long, slender legs were stuck out at odd angles where it had fallen and its mane was spread pearly-white on the dark leaves.**

Parvarti and Lavender both had tears rolling down their cheeks, so did a lot of the other girls.

**Harry had taken one step toward it when a slithering sound made him freeze where he stood.**

**A bush on the edge of the clearing quivered... Then, out of the shadows, a hooded figure came crawling across the ground like some stalking beast.**

Everyone in the room sucked in a breath.

**Harry, Malfoy, and Fang stood transfixed. The cloaked figure reached the unicorn, lowered its head over the wound in the animal's side, and began to drink its blood.**

Everyone in the great hall paled.

"What?" Many people shouted.

Sophia pulled Harry closer to her wrapping him up in her arms and snuffles got up and curled up on the floor next to them worried about Harry. Mrs Malfoy pulled Draco closer to her.

**"AAAAAAAAAARGH!"**

**Malfoy let out a terrible scream and bolted—so did Fang.**

"I don't blame him." Many people said.

"I shouldn't have left him," Draco muttered

"Sweetheart you were 11 and scared." Mrs Malfoy whispered to him

**The hooded figure raised its head and looked right at Harry—unicorn blood was dribbling down its front.**

"Oh Merlin," Lavender whispered.

**It got to its feet and came swiftly toward Harry—he couldn't move for fear.**

**Then a pain like he'd never felt before pierced his head; it was as though his scar were on fire.**

"What?" Every yelled.

**Half blinded, he staggered backward. He heard hooves behind him, galloping, and something jumped clean over Harry, charging at the figure.**

Charlie let out a huge sigh of relief. "A centaur."

**The pain in Harry's head was so bad he fell to his knees. It took a minute or two to pass. When he looked up, the figure had gone. A centaur was standing over him, not Ronan or Bane; this one looked younger; he had white-blond hair and a palomino body.**

**"Are you all right?" said the centaur, pulling Harry to his feet.**

**"Yes—thank you—what was that?"**

Remus shook his head.

**The centaur didn't answer. He had astonishingly blue eyes, like pale sapphires. He looked carefully at Harry, his eyes lingering on the scar that stood out, livid, on Harry's forehead.**

**"You are the Potter boy," he said.**

Draco rolled his eyes.

**"You had better get back to Hagrid. The forest is not safe at this time—especially for you. Can you ride? It will be quicker this way. My name is Firenze," he added, as he lowered himself on to his front legs so that Harry could clamber onto his back.**

Everyone turned to gape at the teen.

"He let you ride him?" Charlie asked enviously. "That's incredible."

"Wicked." Fred and George said in unison.

**There was suddenly a sound of more galloping from the other side of the clearing. Ronan and Bane came bursting through the trees, their flanks heaving and sweaty.**

**"Firenze!" Bane thundered. "What are you doing? You have a human on your back! Have you no shame? Are you a common mule?"**

"Oi!" Fred and George yelled.

**"Do you realize who this is?" said Firenze. "This is the Potter boy. The quicker he leaves this forest, the better."**

"Famous even among centaurs." Ron muttered under his breath. _'show off'_

**"What have you been telling him?" growled Bane.**

**"Remember, Firenze, we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens. Have we not read what is to come in the movements of the planets?"**

Several people rolled there eyes.

**Ronan pawed the ground nervously. "I'm sure Firenze thought he was acting for the best, " he said in his gloomy voice.**

**Bane kicked his back legs in anger.** "**For the best! What is that to do with us? Centaurs are concerned with what has been foretold! It is not our business to run around like donkeys after stray humans in our forest!"**

**Firenze suddenly reared on to his hind legs in anger, so that Harry had to grab his shoulders to stay on.**

**"Do you not see that unicorn?" Firenze bellowed at Bane. "Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must."**

"Go Firenze!" George and Fred yelled.

**And Firenze whisked around; with Harry clutching on as best he could, they plunged off into the trees, leaving Ronan and Bane behind them.**

**Harry didn't have a clue what was going on.**

"Neither do I." Neville said.

"**Why's Bane so angry?" he asked. "What was that thing you saved me from, anyway?"**

**Firenze slowed to a walk, warned Harry to keep his head bowed in case of low-hanging branches, but did not answer Harry's question. They made their way through the trees in silence for so long that Harry thought Firenze didn't want to talk to him anymore. They were passing through a particularly dense patch of trees, however, when Firenze suddenly stopped.**

**"Harry Potter, do you know what unicorn blood is used for?"**

**"No," said Harry, startled by the odd question. "We've only used the horn and tail hair in Potions."**

**"That is because it is a monstrous thing, to slay a unicorn," said Firenze.**

All of the adults nodded their heads.

"It's truly horrible," Professor Sprout said.

**"Only one who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of a unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenseless to save yourself, and you will have but a half-life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips."**

"Why would anyone want that?" Neville asked.

**Harry stared at the back of Firenze's head, which was dappled silver in the moonlight.**

**"But who'd be that desperate?" he wondered aloud. "If you're going to be cursed forever, death's better, isn't it?"**

"Yes." Many of the teachers and students said

**"It is," Firenze agreed, "unless all you need is to stay alive long enough to drink something else—something that will bring you back to full strength and power—something that will mean you can never die. Mr. Potter, do you know what is hidden in the school at this very moment?"**

"The Sorcerer's Stone!" A lot of people yelled.

**"The Sorcerer's Stone! Of course—the Elixir of Life! But I don't understand who—"**

**"Can you think of nobody who has waited many years to return to power, who has clung to life, awaiting their chance?"**

**It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Harry's heart. Over the rustling of the trees, he seemed to hear once more what Hagrid had told him on the night they had met: "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die."**

"He is dead," Umbridge said though gritted teeth.

**"Do you mean," Harry croaked, "that was Vol-"**

"NO!" Umbridge shouted.

"Yes," Sophia said staring at her.

**"Harry! Harry, are you all right?"**

**Hermione was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind her.**

**"I'm fine," said Harry, hardly knowing what he was saying. "The unicorn's dead, Hagrid, it's in that clearing back there."**

**"This is where I leave you," Firenze murmured as Hagrid hurried off to examine the unicorn. "You are safe now."**

**Harry slid off his back.**

**"Good luck, Harry Potter," said Firenze. "The planets have been read wrongly before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times."**

"It is." Sophia muttered

**He turned and cantered back into the depths of the forest, leaving Harry shivering behind him.**

**Ron had fallen asleep in the dark common room, waiting for them to return. He shouted something about Quidditch fouls when Harry roughly shook him awake.**

Fred and George snorted.

**In a matter of seconds, though, he was wide-eyed as Harry began to tell him and Hermione what had happened in the forest.**

**Harry couldn't sit down. He paced up and down in front of the fire. He was still shaking.**

"**Snape wants the stone for Voldemort...and Voldemort's waiting in the forest... and all this time we thought Snape just wanted to get rich..."**

**"Stop saying the name!" said Ron in a terrified whisper, as if he thought Voldemort could hear them.**

**Harry wasn't listening.**

**"Firenze saved me, but he shouldn't have done so...**

**Bane was furious... he was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show that Voldemort'scoming back... Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort** **kill me... I suppose that's written in the stars as well."**

Harry's friends flinched at that.

**"**_**Will you stop saying the name!**_**" Ron hissed.**

**"So all I've got to wait for now is Snape to steal the Stone,"**

Severus ground his teeth, he was growing sick of all the accusations.

**Harry went on feverishly, "then Voldemort** **will be able to come and finish me off... Well, I suppose Bane'll be happy."**

"Don't say that!" Harry's friends shouted.

**Hermione looked very frightened, but she had a word of comfort.** **"Harry, everyone says Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of. With Dumbledore around, You-Know-Who won't touch you. Anyway, who says the centaurs are right? It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that's a very imprecise branch of magic."**

**The sky had turned light before they stopped talking. They went to bed exhausted, their throats sore. But the night's surprises weren't over.**

"Now what?" Remus asked.

**When Harry pulled back his sheets, he found his invisibility cloak folded neatly underneath them. There was a note pinned to it:**

_**Just in case**_

The teachers and adults all groaned and shot glares at Dumbledore.

Sophia chuckled, "how did none of you put this together before the signs are all there but worshippers are always blind to what happens around them."

"That's the end of the chapter." Tonks said shifting in her seat uncomfortably


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

"I'll read next," Amelia said summoning the book to her.

**"Through the Trapdoor."**

"Through the trapdoor?" Mrs Malfoy said turning pale and pulling Draco to her..

All of the adults in the room groaned and turned to look at the sleeping Harry.

**In years to come, Harry would never quite remember how he had managed to get through his exams when he half expected Voldemort to come bursting through the door at any moment.**

Sophia sighed shaking her head, "You shouldn't be worrying about these things at your age."

**Yet the days crept by, and there could be no doubt that Fluffy was still alive and well behind the locked door.**

**It was sweltering hot, especially in the large classroom where they did their written papers. They had been given special, new quills for the exams, which had been bewitched with an Anti cheating spell.**

"And don't think we didn't have those that felt the need to test them to make sure they really were bewitched." McGonagall said with a sigh.

Many people turned to look at the twins when she said this.

**They had practical exams as well. Professor Flitwick called them one by one into his class to see if they could make a pineapple tap dance across a desk.**

**Professor McGonagall watched them turn a mouse into a snuffbox — points were given for how pretty the snuffbox was, but taken away if it had whiskers.**

Several students snickered.

**Snape made them all nervous, breathing down their necks while they tried to remember how to make a Forgetfulness potion.**

Some of the teachers shot Snape sharp looks.

"How do you expect them to do well if you're breathing down their necks?" McGonagall asked.

Severus just openly glared at her he really did hate his job.

**Harry did the best he could, trying to ignore the stabbing pains in his forehead, which had been bothering him ever since his trip into the forest.**

The teachers all frowned. Madam Pomfrey was openly glaring at him for not coming to the hospital wing.

**Neville thought Harry had a bad case of exam nerves because Harry couldn't sleep, but the truth was that Harry kept being woken by his old nightmare, except that it was now worse than ever because there was a hooded figure dripping blood in it.**

"Pleasant image," Dean grimaced.

**Maybe it was because they hadn't seen what Harry had seen in the forest, or because they didn't have scars burning on their foreheads, but Ron and Hermione didn't seem as worried about the Stone as Harry.**

**The idea of Voldemort certainly scared them, but he didn't keep visiting them in dreams, and they were so busy with their studying they didn't have much time to fret about what Snape or anyone else might be up to.**

**Their very last exam was History of Magic. One hour of answering questions about batty old wizards who'd invented self stirring cauldrons and they'd be free, free for a whole wonderful week until their exam results came out. When the ghost of Professor Binns told them to put down their quills and roll up their parchment, Harry couldn't help cheering with the rest.**

"If you hadn't I would've had you checked into St. Mungos," Fred said seriously.

"**That was far easier than I thought it would be," said Hermione as they joined the crowds flocking out onto the sunny grounds.** "**I needn't have learned about the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager."**

Several people rolled there eyes.

"She should've been in Ravenclaw." Padma said quietly to her friend.

**Hermione always liked to go through their exam papers afterward,** **but Ron said this made him feel ill,**

Fred and George snorted.

**so they wandered down to the lake and flopped under a tree. The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were tickling the tentacles of a giant squid,** **which was basking in the warm shallows.**

"The squid likes it," George said smiling.

"He really does." Lee said nodding his head in agreement.

**"No more studying," Ron sighed happily, stretching out on the grass. "You could look more cheerful, Harry, we've got a week before we find out how badly we've done, there's no need to worry yet."**

**Harry was rubbing his forehead.** "**I wish I knew what this means!" he burst out angrily. "My scar keeps hurting — it's happened before, but never as often as this."**

Moody narrowed his eyes at the book.

"**Go to Madam Pomfrey," Hermione suggested.**

"Yes, come to me," Pomfrey said.

**I'm not ill," said Harry. "I think it's a warning… it means danger's coming…"**

Umbridge was looking at Harry as though he was some sort of dangerous experiment._ 'That boy needs to be locked up.'_

Sophia looked at Umbridge and just raised her eyes at her, she snorted when Umbridge quickly turned away to look at the floor.

**Ron couldn't get worked up, it was too hot.**

Fred and George snorted.

"**Harry, relax, Hermione's right, the Stone's safe as long as Dumbledore's around. Anyway, we've never had any proof Snape found out how to get past Fluffy. He nearly had his leg ripped off once, he's not going to try it again in a hurry. **

**And Neville will play Quidditch for England before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."**

Sophia snorted at this. "You will see," she said waving her hand dismissively

**Harry nodded, but he couldn't shake off a lurking feeling that there was something he'd forgotten to do, something important. **

"Trust your instincts," Moody grunted.

**When he tried to explain this, Hermione said, "That's just the exams. I woke up last night and was halfway through my Transfiguration notes before I remembered we'd done that one."**

**Harry was quite sure the unsettled feeling didn't have anything to do with work, though. He watched an owl flutter toward the school across the bright blue sky, a note clamped in its mouth.**

**Hagrid was the only one who ever sent him letters. Hagrid would never betray Dumbledore. Hagrid would never tell anyone how to get past Fluffy… never… but…**

"Uh oh." Katie Bell said

**Harry suddenly jumped to his feet.**

"**Where're you going?" said Ron sleepily.**

"**I've just thought of something," said Harry. He had turned white. "We've got to go and see Hagrid, now."**

"Why?" Dennis asked looking confused, and he wasn't the only one.

"**Why?" panted Hermione, hurrying to keep up.**

"You mean Hermione doesn't know?" Dean asked seriously causing those around him to burst out laughing.

"**Don't you think it's a bit odd," said Harry, scrambling up the grassy slope, "that what Hagrid wants more than anything else is a dragon, and a stranger turns up who just happens to have an egg in his pocket?**

"Good Potter." Moody grunted.

**How many people wander around with dragon eggs if it's against wizard law? Lucky they found Hagrid, don't you think? Why didn't I see it before?"**

Those who understood what he was saying groaned.

"**What are you talking about?" said Ron, but Harry, sprinting across the grounds toward the forest, didn't answer.**

**Hagrid was sitting in an armchair outside his house; his trousers and sleeves were rolled up, and he was shelling peas into a large bowl.**

"**Hullo," he said, smiling. "Finished yer exams? Got time fer a drink?"**

"**Yes, please," said Ron, but Harry cut him off.**

The twins snickered.

"**No, we're in a hurry. Hagrid, I've got to ask you something. You know that night you won Norbert? What did the stranger you were playing cards with look like?"**

"**Dunno," said Hagrid casually, "he wouldn' take his cloak off."**

"Oh no." Several people moaned while others said, "Oh Hagrid."

Hagrid by now looked very embarrassed.

**He saw the three of them look stunned and raised his eyebrows.**

**"It's not that unusual, yeh get a lot o' funny folk in the Hog's Head — that's one of the pub down in the village. Mighta bin a dragon dealer, mightn' he? I never saw his face, he kept his hood up."**

"If he was a dragon dealer he would've sold it and made a whole bunch of gold," Charlie said frowning.

**Harry sank down next to the bowl of peas. "What did you talk to him about, Hagrid? Did you mention Hogwarts at all?"**

"**Mighta come up," said Hagrid, frowning as he tried to remember. "Yeah… he asked what I did, an' I told him I was gamekeeper here… He asked a bit about the sorta creatures I took after… so I told him… an' I said what I'd always really wanted was a dragon… an' then… I can' remember too well, 'cause he kept buyin' me drinks…**

Remus frowned looking thoughtful. "He was deliberately set up then whoever it was knew how to get answers."

Moody grunted. "Not that hard. Everyone in England knows how to get what they need from him, including every student at that school."

Many students snickered while Hagrid turned bright red.

Sophia took pity on him, "Hagrid don't worry you have a loyal heart and anyone would be honoured to call you friend." She smiled at him watching him blush.

"Thank you my lady," Hagrid said still rising in colour Sophia nodded and turned back to Harry.

**Let's see… yeah, then he said he had the dragon egg an' we could play cards fer it if I wanted… but he had ter be sure I could handle it, he didn' want it ter go ter any old home… So I told him, after Fluffy, a dragon would be easy…"**

"**And did he — did he seem interested in Fluffy?" Harry asked, trying to keep his voice calm.**

"**Well — yeah — how many three-headed dogs d'yeh meet, even around Hogwarts? So I told him, Fluffy's a piece o' cake if yeh know how to calm him down, jus' play him a bit o' music an' he'll go straight off ter sleep —"**

"Hagrid!" Most of the hall shouted exasperated.

The teachers were sending him disappointed looks.

**Hagrid suddenly looked horrified.** "**I shouldn'ta told yeh that!" he blurted out. "Forget I said it! Hey — where're yeh goin'?"**

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't speak to each other at all until they came to a halt in the entrance hall, which seemed very cold and gloomy after the grounds.**

"**We've got to go to Dumbledore,"**

Everyone turned at them confused.

McGonagall was looking sheepish._ 'If only I would've believed them.'_

**said Harry. "Hagrid told that stranger how to get past Fluffy, and it was either Snape or Voldemort under that cloak — it must've been easy, once he'd got Hagrid drunk. I just hope Dumbledore believes us. Firenze might back us up if Bane doesn't stop him. Where's Dumbledore's office?"**

"You didn't know where Dumbledore's office was?" Fred asked looking outraged.

**They looked around, as if hoping to see a sign pointing them in the right direction. They had never been told where Dumbledore lived, nor did they know anyone who had been sent to see him.**

"Oi!" Fred called out indignantly.

"What about us?" George asked.

The hall roared with laughter.

"**We'll just have to —" Harry began, but a voice suddenly rang across the hall.**

"**What are you three doing inside?"** **It was Professor McGonagall, carrying a large pile of books.**

Remus looked at McGonagall. _'Why would they go down the trapdoor if they told someone?'_

"**We want to see Professor Dumbledore," said Hermione, rather bravely, Harry and Ron thought.**

"**See Professor Dumbledore?" Professor McGonagall repeated, as though this was a very fishy thing to want to do. "Why?"**

**Harry swallowed — now what?** "**It's sort of secret," he said,** **but he wished at once he hadn't, because Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared.**

The twins snickered.

"**Professor Dumbledore left ten minutes ago," she said coldly. "He received an urgent owl from the Ministry of Magic and flew off for London at once."**

"Of course he did," Several people sighed

"**He's gone?" said Harry frantically. "Now?"**

"**Professor Dumbledore is a very great wizard, Potter, he has many demands on his time – "**

**"But this is important."**

"**Something you have to say is more important than the Ministry of Magic, Potter?"**

"Everyone's more important than him," Neville said quietly and Draco burst out laughing receiving many confused looks.

"**Look," said Harry, throwing caution to the winds, "Professor — it's about the Philosopher's Stone —"**

"She won't like that either," Remus said.

**Whatever Professor McGonagall had expected, it wasn't that. The books she was carrying tumbled out of her arms, but she didn't pick them up.** "**How do you know —?" she spluttered.**

"I take it you were shocked?" Kingsley asked in his deep voice.

"I was very shocked." McGonagall said.

"**Professor, I think — I know — that Sn— that someone's going to try and steal the Stone. I've got to talk to Professor Dumbledore."**

**She eyed him with a mixture of shock and suspicion.**

"**Professor Dumbledore will be back tomorrow,"**

Amelia, Kingsley, Tonks and Moody exchanged looks, all wondering why he would have to stay at the ministry so long.

**she said finally. "I don't know how you found out about the Stone, but rest assured, no one can possibly steal it, it's too well protected."**

"**But Professor —"**

"**Potter, I know what I'm talking about," she said shortly. She bent down and gathered up the fallen books. "I suggest you all go back outside and enjoy the sunshine."**

**But they didn't.**

"And you people wonder why he doesn't go to adults with his problems when you as his head of house dismissed him without even checking." Sophia said glaring at McGonagall. The other teachers shifted uncomfortably.

"**It's tonight," said Harry, once he was sure Professor McGonagall was out of earshot. "Snape's going through the trapdoor tonight. He's found out everything he needs, and now he's got Dumbledore out of the way. He sent that note, I bet the Ministry of Magic will get a real shock when Dumbledore turns up."**

"**But what can we —"**

**Hermione gasped. Harry and Ron wheeled round.** **Snape was standing there.**

"Of course he was." Charlie said snickering.

"**Good afternoon," he said smoothly.**

**They stared at him.**

"**You shouldn't be inside on a day like this," he said, with an odd, twisted smile.**

"That's creepy," Lavender muttered.

**"We were —" Harry began, without any idea what he was going to say.**

Fred and George shook their heads sadly.

"**You want to be more careful," said Snape. "Hanging around like this, people will think you're up to something. **

"Did you know?" Remus asked.

"No I didn't." Severus said pinching the bridge of his nose.

**And Gryffindor really can't afford to lose any more points, can it?"**

**Harry flushed. They turned to go outside, but Snape called them back.**

"**Be warned, Potter — any more nighttime wanderings and I will personally make sure you are expelled. Good day to you."**

The students chuckled.

"Like Harry would ever get expelled the world would be outrage." Draco snickered quietly

**He strode off in the direction of the staff room.**

**Out on the stone steps, Harry turned to the others.** "**Right, here's what we've got to do," he whispered urgently. "One of us has got to keep an eye on Snape — wait outside the staff room and follow him if he leaves it. Hermione, you'd better do that."**

"**Why me?"**

"It's obvious," Draco sneered. "You can pretend to be asking about school work."

"**It's obvious," said Ron. "You can pretend to be waiting for Professor Flitwick, you know." He put on a high voice, "'Oh Professor Flitwick, I'm so worried, I think I got question fourteen b wrong… '"**

Draco and Ron looked horrified at almost saying the same thing.

**"Oh, shut up," said Hermione, but she agreed to go and watch out for Snape.**

"**And we'd better stay outside the third-floor corridor," Harry told Ron. "Come on."**

**But that part of the plan didn't work.**

"Your plans never seem to work," Neville said.

**No sooner had they reached the door separating Fluffy from the rest of the school than Professor McGonagall turned up again and this time, she lost her temper.**

"Uh oh." Everyone who had seen her lose her temper said.

"**I suppose you think you're harder to get past than a pack of enchantments!" she stormed. "Enough of this nonsense! If I hear you've come anywhere near here again, I'll take another fifty points from Gryffindor! Yes, Weasley, from my own house!"**

**Harry and Ron went back to the common room, Harry had just said, "At least Hermione's on Snape's tail," when the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and Hermione came in.**

Several students groaned.

"**I'm sorry, Harry!" she wailed. "Snape came out and asked me what I was doing, so I said I was waiting for Flitwick, and Snape went to get him, and I've only just got away, I don't know where Snape went."**

"**Well, that's it then, isn't it?" Harry said.**

Remus groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose.

**The other two stared at him. He was pale and his eyes were glittering.**

"**I'm going out of here tonight and I'm going to try and get to the Stone first."**

"Harry!" Half the hall said exasperated.

"He had to make sure it was safe," Moody grunted. "Potter did the right thing."

"**You're mad!" said Ron.**

"I agree." Many people said.

"**You can't!" said Hermione. "After what McGonagall and Snape have said? You'll be expelled!"**

"**SO WHAT" Harry shouted. "Don't you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts!** **Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I'll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there, it's only dying a bit later than I would have, because I'm never going over to the Dark Side!**

Everyone was silent as they stared at the dark haired teen, shock and awe filling their faces.

"Good boy," Moody grunted nodded at the sleeping Harry.

**I'm going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?"**

**He glared at them.**

"**You're right Harry," said Hermione in a small voice.**

"It was a good speech," Dean said.

"**I'll use the invisibility cloak," said Harry. "It's just lucky I got it back."**

The adults all glared at Dumbledore.

"**But will it cover all three of us?" said Ron.**

Glares were now sent to Ron and Hermione.

"**All — all three of us?"**

"**Oh, come off it, you don't think we'd let you go alone?"**

"**Of course not," said Hermione briskly. "How do you think you'd get to the Stone without us? **

Sophia snorted.

**I'd better go and look through my books, there might be something useful…"**

"**But if we get caught, you two will be expelled, too."**

"**Not if I can help it," said Hermione grimly. "Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They're not throwing me out after that."**

Everyone turned to stare at her.

**After dinner the three of them sat nervously apart in the common room. Nobody bothered them; none of the Gryffindors had anything to say to Harry any more, after all. This was the first night he hadn't been upset by it.**

The teachers glared at the Gryffindors who looked properly ashamed.

**Hermione was skimming through all her notes, hoping to come across one of the enchantments they were about to try to break. Harry and Ron didn't talk much. Both of them were thinking about what they were about to do.**

**Slowly, the room emptied as people drifted off to bed.**

**"Better get the cloak," Ron muttered, as Lee Jordan finally left, stretching and yawning. Harry ran upstairs to their dark dormitory. He pulled out the cloak and then his eyes fell on the flute Hagrid had given him for Christmas. He pocketed it to use on Fluffy — he didn't feel much like singing.**

**He ran back down to the common room.**

"**We'd better put the cloak on here, and make sure it covers all three of us – if Filch spots one of our feet wandering along on its own —"**

The twins exchanged looks.

"**What are you doing?" said a voice from the corner of the room. Neville appeared from behind an armchair, clutching Trevor the toad, who looked as though he'd been making another bid for freedom.**

"Oh no, Neville please tell me you didn't join them on this wild adventure of theirs?" Mrs Malfoy asked him.

"No." Neville said shaking his head.

"Neville was supposed to though." People looked at Sophia confused when she said this, "Wait till you see the first challenge." She added.

"**Nothing, Neville, nothing," said Harry, hurriedly putting the cloak behind his back.**

Fred, George and Lee snorted.

**Neville stared at their guilty faces.**

"How you guys get away with everything, yet you can't lie to save your lives amazes me," Fred said.

"**You're going out again," he said.**

"**No, no, no," said Hermione. "No, we're not. Why don't you go to bed, Neville?"**

**Harry looked at the grandfather clock by the door. They couldn't afford to waste any more time, Snape might even now be playing Fluffy to sleep.**

"**You can't go out," said Neville. "You'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."**

**"You don't understand," said Harry. "This is important."**

"I didn't know that then," Neville sighed.

**But Neville was clearly steeling himself to do something desperate.** "**I won't let you do it," he said, hurrying to stand in front of the portrait hole. "I'll — I'll fight you!"**

Most of the hall looked shock. Neville Longbottom standing up to someone, especially Harry Potter wasn't something anyone could picture him doing.

"**Neville," Ron exploded, "get away from that hole and don't be an idiot —"**

"**Don't you call me an idiot!" said Neville. "I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the one who told me to stand up to people!"**

"I don't think that he meant them," Daphne said.

"**Yes, but not to us," said Ron in exasperation. "Neville, you don't know what you're doing."**

**He took a step forward and Neville dropped Trevor the toad, who leapt out of sight.**

"**Go on then, try and hit me!" said Neville, raising his fists. "I'm ready!"**

"You're a wizard." Dean said. "Why wouldn't you just us your wand?"

Neville shrugged turning red from embarrassment.

**Harry turned to Hermione.** "**Do something," he said desperately.**

**Hermione stepped forward. "Neville," she said, "I'm really, really sorry about this."**

**She raised her wand.**

Everyone leaned forward wondering what she was going to do.

"**Petrificus Totalus!" she cried, pointing it at Neville.**

"You jinxed him!" A lot of the hall yelled in shock.

"I can't believe you did that," Alicia said.

"How dare you." Madam Longbottom shouted in outrage

**Neville's arms snapped to his sides. His legs sprang together. His whole body rigid, he swayed where he stood and then fell flat on his face, stiff as a board.**

Several people winced in sympathy.

**Hermione ran to turn him over. Neville's jaws were jammed together so he couldn't speak. Only his eyes were moving, looking at them in horror.**

"**What've you done to him?" Harry whispered.**

"**It's the full Body-Bind," said Hermione miserably. "Oh, Neville, I'm so sorry."**

"**We had to, Neville, no time to explain," said Harry.**

"**You'll understand later, Neville," said Ron as they stepped over him and pulled on the invisibility cloak.**

**But leaving Neville lying motionless on the floor didn't feel like a very good omen. In their nervous state, every statue's shadow looked like Filch, every distant breath of wind sounded like Peeves swooping down on them. At the foot of the first set of stairs, they spotted Mrs. Norris skulking near the top.**

"Bloody cat," Dean said.

"**Oh, let's kick her, just this once," Ron whispered in Harry's ear, but Harry shook his head.**

The teachers all sighed.

**As they climbed carefully around her, Mrs. Norris turned her lamp like eyes on them, but didn't do anything.**

**They didn't meet anyone else until they reached the staircase up to the third floor. Peeves was bobbing halfway up, loosening the carpet so that people would trip.**

"Not good," George said.

**"Who's there?" he said suddenly as they climbed toward him. He narrowed his wicked black eyes. "Know you're there, even if I can't see you. Are you ghoulie or ghostie or wee student beastie?"**

**He rose up in the air and floated there, squinting at them.**

"**Should call Filch, I should, if something's a-creeping around unseen."**

**Harry had a sudden idea.** "**Peeves," he said, in a hoarse whisper, "the Bloody Baron has his own reasons for being invisible."**

Everyone turned to stare at Harry.

"That was bloody brilliant!" Fred and George said together.

**Peeves almost fell out of the air in shock. **

The students snickered.

**He caught himself in time and hovered about a foot off the stairs.**

"**So sorry, your bloodiness, Mr. Baron, Sir," he said greasily. "My mistake, my mistake — I didn't see you — of course I didn't, you're invisible — forgive old Peevsie his little joke, sir."**

Fred and George stood up and started clapping and Sophia coughed to hide her laughter.

"**I have business here, Peeves," croaked Harry. "Stay away from this place tonight."**

**"I will, sir, I most certainly will," said Peeves, rising up in the air again. "Hope your business goes well, Baron, I'll not bother you." And he scooted off.**

"**Brilliant, Harry!" whispered Ron.**

**A few seconds later, they were there, outside the third-floor corridor — and the door was already ajar.**

"Oh no." Several people said.

**"Well, there you are," Harry said quietly, "Snape's already got past Fluffy."**

**Seeing the open door somehow seemed to impress upon all three of them what was facing them. Underneath the cloak, Harry turned to the other two.**

"**If you want to go back, I won't blame you," he said. "You can take the cloak, I won't need it now."**

"**Don't be stupid," said Ron.**

"**We're coming," said Hermione.**

**Harry pushed the door open.** **As the door creaked, low, rumbling growls met their ears.**

Sophia instantly pulled Harry closer to her.

**All three of the dog's noses sniffed madly in their direction, even though it couldn't see them.**

"**What's that at its feet?" Hermione whispered.**

"**Looks like a harp," said Ron. "Snape must have left it there."**

The hall was silent for a moment then everyone burst into laughter.

Severus was glaring at the students.

"**It must wake up the moment you stop playing," said Harry. "Well, here goes…"**

**He put Hagrid's flute to his lips and blew. It wasn't really a tune, but from the first note the beast's eyes began to droop. Harry hardly drew breath. Slowly, the dog's growls ceased — it tottered on its paws and fell to its knees, then it slumped to the ground, fast asleep.**

"That's mental," Dean said chuckling quietly. "A giant three headed dog falls asleep just by playing music."

"**Keep playing," Ron warned Harry as they slipped out of the cloak and crept toward the trapdoor. They could feel the dog's hot, smelly breath as they approached the giant heads.**

**"I think we'll be able to pull the door open," said Ron, peering over the dog's back. "Want to go first, Hermione?"**

"Really chivalrous," Draco sneered at him.

"**No, I don't!"**

"**All right." Ron gritted his teeth and stepped carefully over the dog's legs. He bent and pulled the ring of the trapdoor, which swung up and open.**

"**What can you see?" Hermione said anxiously.**

"**Nothing — just black — there's no way of climbing down, we'll just have to drop."**

Everyone winced then turned to look at them.

**Harry, who was still playing the flute, waved at Ron to get his attention and pointed at himself.**

"**You want to go first? Are you sure?" said Ron. **

Snuffles whimpered.

"Of course Harry would volunteer to go first," Remus sighed.

**"I don't know how deep this thing goes. Give the flute to Hermione so she can keep him asleep." Harry handed the flute over. In the few seconds' silence, the dog growled and twitched, but the moment Hermione began to play, it fell back into its deep sleep.**

**Harry climbed over it and looked down through the trapdoor. There was no sign of the bottom.**

People were now leaning forward in there seats.

**He lowered himself through the hole until he was hanging on by his fingertips. Then he looked up at Ron and said, "If anything happens to me, don't follow. Go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, right?"**

"**Right," said Ron.**

"**See you in a minute, I hope…"** **And Harry let go. Cold, damp air rushed past him as he fell down, down, down and —**

**FLUMP.**

"Flump?" Blaise asked from the Slytherin table. "What the hell does flump mean?"

Sprout winced and turned pale knowing what was down there.

**With a funny, muffled sort of thump he landed on something soft. He sat up and felt around, his eyes not used to the gloom. It felt as though he was sitting on some sort of plant.**

Neville leaned forward out of curiosity.

"Why would they put a plant to break your fall?" Dennis asked.

"**It's okay!" he called up to the light the size of a postage stamp, which was the open trapdoor, "It's a soft landing, you can jump!"**

**Ron followed right away. He landed, sprawled next to Harry.** "**What's this stuff?" were his first words.**

"**Dunno, some sort of plant thing. I suppose it's here to break the fall. Come on, Hermione!"**

**The distant music stopped. There was a loud bark from the dog, but Hermione had already jumped. She landed on Harry's other side.**

"**We must be miles under the school," she said.**

"**Lucky this plant thing's here, really," said Ron.**

"**Lucky!" shrieked Hermione. "Look at you both!"**

"Oh no!" Several people said looking worried.

**She leapt up and struggled toward a damp wall. She had to struggle because the moment she had landed, the plant had started to twist snakelike tendrils around her ankles.**

**As for Harry and Ron, their legs had already been bound tightly in long creepers without their noticing.**

Neville gasped and jumped back. "That's devil's snare!"

"Crap!" Leanne shouted.

"Told that this was the task set up for Neville." Sophia said and Neville paled

**Hermione had managed to free herself before the plant got a firm grip on her. Now she watched in horror as the two boys fought to pull the plant off them, but the more they strained against it, the tighter and faster the plant wound around them.**

**"Stop moving!" Hermione ordered them. "I know what this is — it's Devil's Snare!"**

**"Oh, I'm so glad we know what it's called, that's a great help," snarled Ron, **

"It's actually a good thing." McGonagall said paling slightly.

**leaning back, trying to stop the plant from curling around his neck.**

"**Shut up, I'm trying to remember how to kill it!" said Hermione.**

"**Well, hurry up, I can't breathe!" Harry gasped, wrestling with it as it curled around his chest.**

"**Devil's Snare, Devil's Snare… what did Professor Sprout say? — it likes the dark and the damp."**

"**So light a fire!" Harry choked.**

"**Yes — of course — but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.**

There were weak chuckles around the room that lessoned the tension slightly.

Draco sneered. "Seriously Granger?"

More people chuckled hearing this.

"**HAVE YOU GONE MAD?" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"**

This got some light chuckles.

"**Oh, right!" said Hermione, and she whipped out her wand, waved it, muttered something, and sent a jet of the same bluebell flames she had used on Snape at the plant. In a matter of seconds, the two boys felt it loosening its grip as it cringed away from the light and warmth. Wriggling and flailing, it unraveled itself from their bodies, and they were able to pull free.**

"Thank Merlin." Was heard throughout the hall.

"**Lucky you pay attention in Herbology, Hermione," said Harry as he joined her by the wall, wiping sweat off his face.**

"**Yeah," said Ron, "And lucky Harry doesn't lose his head in a crisis — 'there's no wood,' honestly."**

**"This way," said Harry, pointing down a stone passageway, which was the only way forward.**

**All they could hear apart from their footsteps was the gentle drip of water trickling down the walls. The passageway sloped downward, and Harry was reminded of Gringotts. With an unpleasant jolt of the heart, he remembered the dragons said to be guarding vaults in the wizards' bank. If they met a dragon, a fully-grown dragon — Norbert had been bad enough…**

"**Can you hear something?" Ron whispered.**

**Harry listened. A soft rustling and clinking seemed to be coming from up ahead.**

"**Do you think it's a ghost?"**

**"**Why would there be a ghost?" Astoria asked her sister confused. "That wouldn't exactly stop anyone."

"**I don't know… sounds like wings to me."**

Moody nodded in approval.

**"There's light ahead — I can see something moving."**

**They reached the end of the passageway and saw before them a brilliantly lit chamber, its ceiling arching high above them. It was full of small, jewel-bright birds, fluttering and tumbling all around the room. On the opposite side of the chamber was a heavy wooden door.**

"**Do you think they'll attack us if we cross the room?" said Ron.**

"I hope not," several people muttered.

**Probably," said Harry. "They don't look very vicious, but I suppose if they all swooped down at once… well, there's no other choice… I'll run."**

"Why is it always you." Sophia said quickly running her hand through Harry's hair, "you are going to turn me grey with all your adventures." She added chuckling quietly

Severus frowned listening to this he was so confused he had only met the woman a day ago but she was making him feel things he never had before.

**He took a deep breath, covered his face with his arms, and sprinted across the room. He expected to feel sharp beaks and claws tearing at him any second, but nothing happened. He reached the door untouched. He pulled the handle, but it was locked.**

"I highly doubt they would leave it unlocked," Bill said.

**The other two followed him. They tugged and heaved at the door, but it wouldn't budge, not even when Hermione tried her Alohomora charm.**

Remus shook his head.

"**Now what?" said Ron.**

"**These birds… they can't be here just for decoration," said Hermione.**

**They watched the birds soaring overhead, glittering —glittering?**

"Birds don't glitter," Neville said looking confused.

**"They're not birds!" Harry said suddenly. "They're keys! Winged keys — look carefully. So that must mean…" he looked around the chamber while the other two squinted up at the flock of keys. "… yes — look! Broomsticks! We've got to catch the key to the door!"**

"That's all?" Bill asked incredulously.

"It does seem way too simple," Charlie said.

Remus and Moody narrowed their eyes at the book.

"**But there are hundreds of them!"**

**Ron examined the lock on the door.** "**We're looking for a big, old-fashioned one — probably silver, like the handle."**

**They each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to catch one.**

**Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. **

The Gryffindor's cheered.

**He had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had already been caught and stuffed roughly into the keyhole.**

"**That one!" he called to the others. "That big one — there — no, there — with bright blue wings — the feathers are all crumpled on one side."**

**Ron went speeding in the direction that Harry was pointing, crashed into the ceiling, and nearly fell off his broom.**

Several people winced.

**"We've got to close in on it!" Harry called, not taking his eyes off the key with the damaged wing. "Ron, you come at it from above — Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down and I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"**

"He makes a good leader wouldn't you say." Kingsley said to Moody who nodded in agreement. Fudge and Umbridge looked furious.

**Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, the key dodged them both, and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Ron and Hermione's cheers echoed around the high chamber.**

"That's our seeker," the team cheered.

**They landed quickly, and Harry ran to the door, the key struggling in his hand. He rammed it into the lock and turned – it worked. The moment the lock had clicked open, the key took flight again, looking very battered now that it had been caught twice.**

"That poor key." Luna said dreamily and Sophia smiled at her.

**"Ready?" Harry asked the other two, his hand on the door handle. They nodded. He pulled the door open.**

**The next chamber was so dark they couldn't see anything at all. But as they stepped into it, light suddenly flooded the room to reveal an astonishing sight.**

Everyone leaned forward in anticipation.

**They were standing on the edge of a huge chessboard, behind the black chessmen, which were all taller than they were and carved from what looked like black stone. Facing them, way across the chamber, were the white pieces. Harry, Ron and Hermione shivered slightly – the towering white chessmen had no faces.**

McGonagall paled at this

"**Now what do we do?" Harry whispered.**

"**It's obvious, isn't it?" said Ron. "We've got to play our way across the room."**

McGonagall turned even more pale._ 'I hope none of them got hurt.'_

**Behind the white pieces they could see another door.**

"**How?" said Hermione nervously.**

"**I think," said Ron, "we're going to have to be chessmen."**

**He walked up to a black knight and put his hand out to touch the knight's horse. At once, the stone sprang to life. The horse pawed the ground and the knight turned his helmeted head to look down at Ron.**

"You're going to be actual pieces?" Remus said paling.

"Wait." Bill said, everyone turned to look at him. "It wasn't like real wizards chess was it?" Everyone turned to look at the staff who were growing even paler.

"**Do we — er — have to join you to get across?" The black knight nodded.**

**Ron turned to the other two.** "**This needs thinking about…" he said. "I suppose we've got to take the place of three of the black pieces…"**

**Harry and Hermione stayed quiet, watching Ron think. Finally he said, "Now, don't be offended or anything, but neither of you are that good at chess —"**

"**We're not offended," said Harry quickly. "Just tell us what to do."**

"**Well, Harry, you take the place of that bishop, and Hermione, you go there instead of that castle."**

"**What about you?"**

"**I'm going to be a knight," said Ron.**

"That's Ron's favorite piece," Charlie said nodding glaring at his brother he still couldn't believe how he could betray Harry.

**The chessmen seemed to have been listening, because at these words a knight, a bishop, and a castle turned their backs on the white pieces and walked off the board, leaving three empty squares that Harry, Ron, and Hermione took.**

"**White always plays first in chess," said Ron, peering across the board. "Yes… look…"**

**A white pawn had moved forward two squares.**

**Ron started to direct the black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry's knees were trembling. What if they lost?**

"**Harry — move diagonally four squares to the right."**

**Their first real shock came when their other knight was taken. The white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board, where he lay quite still, face down.**

Several people winced.

"**Had to let that happen," said Ron, looking shaken. "Leaves you free to take that bishop, Hermione, go on."**

**Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry and Hermione were in danger. **

"Oh no." Several people gasped.

"That's not good," said a pale Susan.

**He himself darted around the board, taking almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.**

**"We're nearly there," he muttered suddenly. "Let me think — let me think…"**

**The white queen turned her blank face toward him.**

"**Yes…" said Ron softly, "It's the only way… I've got to be taken."**

"NO!" The adults all shouted.

"**NO!" Harry and Hermione shouted.**

"I was so scared you were going to be hurt," Hermione whispered to him in a small voice but Ron was too busy openly glaring at the sleeping Harry who was still curled in Sophia's lap.

"**That's chess!" snapped Ron. "You've got to make some sacrifices! I make my move and she'll take me — that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry!"**

"**But —"**

"**Do you want to stop Snape or not?"**

"**Ron —"**

"**Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!"**

**There was no alternative.**

"**Ready?" Ron called, his face pale but determined. "Here I go — now, don't hang around once you've won."**

**He stepped forward, and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard across the head with her stone arm, and he crashed to the floor —**

The majority of the hall winced and paled even further.

**Hermione screamed but stayed on her square — the white queen dragged Ron to one side. He looked as if he'd been knocked out.**

**Shaking, Harry moved three spaces to the left.**

**The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. They had won. The chessmen parted and bowed, leaving the door ahead clear. With one last desperate look back at Ron,**

"You didn't stay?" Fred snapped completely lost in the story.

**Harry and Hermione charged through the door and up the next passageway.**

"**What if he's —?"**

"**He'll be all right," said Harry, trying to convince himself. "What do you reckon's next?"**

"**We've had Sprout's, that was the Devil's Snare; Flitwick must've put charms on the keys; McGonagall transfigured the chessmen to make them alive; that leaves Quirrell's spell, and Snape's."**

**They had reached another door.**

"**All right?" Harry whispered.**

"**Go on."**

**Harry pushed it open.**

**A disgusting smell filled their nostrils, making both of them pull their robes up over their noses. Eyes watering, they saw, flat on the floor in front of them, a troll even larger than the one they had tackled, out cold with a bloody lump on its head.**

Moody and Remus narrowed their eyes at the book.

_'Quirrell.'_ Moody thought.

"**I'm glad we didn't have to fight that one," Harry whispered as they stepped carefully over one of its massive legs. "Come on, I can't breathe."**

**He pulled open the next door, both of them hardly daring to look at what came next - but there was nothing very frightening in here, just a table with seven differently shaped bottles standing on it in a line.**

"**Snape's," said Harry. "What do we have to do?"**

**They stepped over the threshold, and immediately a fire sprang up behind them in the doorway. It wasn't ordinary fire either; it was purple. At the same instant, black flames shot up in the doorway leading onward. They were trapped.**

_'I'd like to see how Potter solves this.' _Severus thought.

Some people leaned forward looking interested.

"**Look!" Hermione seized a roll of paper lying next to the bottles. Harry looked over her shoulder to read it:**

**Danger lies before you, while safety lies behind,**

**Two of us will help you, which ever you would find,**

**One among us seven will let you move ahead,**

**Another will transport the drinker back instead,**

**Two among our number hold only nettle wine,**

**Three of us are killers, waiting bidden in line.**

**Choose, unless you wish to stay here forevermore,**

**To help you in your choice, we give you these clues four:**

**First, however slyly the poison tries to hide**

**You will always find some on nettle wine's left side;**

**Second, different are those who stand at either end,**

**But if you would move onward, neither is your friend;**

**Third, as you see clearly, all are different size,**

**Neither dwarf nor giant holds death in their insides;**

**Fourth, the second left and the second on the right**

**Are twins once you taste them, though different at first sight.**

Most of the room were staring at the book in confusion.

"A riddle," Luna said in her dreamy voice smiling.

"I'd be stuck in there forever," Lily Moon said.

**Hermione let out a great sigh and Harry, amazed, saw that she was smiling, the very last thing he felt like doing.**

"**Brilliant," said Hermione. "This isn't magic — it's logic — a puzzle. A lot of the greatest wizards haven't got an ounce of logic, they'd be stuck in here forever."**

"**But so will we, won't we?"**

**"Of course not," said Hermione. "Everything we need is here on this paper. Seven bottles: three are poison; two are wine; one will get us safely through the black fire, and one will get us back through the purple."**

"**But how do we know which to drink?"**

"**Give me a minute."**

**Hermione read the paper several times. Then she walked up and down the line of bottles, muttering to herself and pointing at them. At last, she clapped her hands.**

Snape mentally groaned.

"You it would have been logic to put poison in all five bottles that way no one would be able to get the stone but then again that would have ruined Dumbledore's great plan." Sophia said.

"**Got it," she said. "The smallest bottle will get us through the black fire — toward the Stone."**

**Harry looked at the tiny bottle.** "**There's only enough there for one of us," he said. "That's hardly one swallow."**

Remus groaned, "Of course."

**They looked at each other.**

"**Which one will get you back through the purple flames?"**

**Hermione pointed at a rounded bottle at the right end of the line.**

"**You drink that," said Harry. "No, listen, get back and get Ron. Grab brooms from the flying-key room, they'll get you out of the trapdoor and past Fluffy — go straight to the owlery and send Hedwig to Dumbledore, we need him. I might be able to hold Snape off for a while, but I'm no match for him, really."**

Severus stared at the sleeping form of Harry.

"**But Harry — what if You-Know-Who's with him?"**

Umbridge shot the book a glare.

**"Well — I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."**

"Luck." Remus said incredulously. "You were counting on luck?"

**Hermione's lip trembled, and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him.**

"**Hermione!"**

"**Harry — you're a great wizard, you know."**

Many people nodded in agreement.

"**I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him.**

"**Me!" said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things — friendship and bravery and — oh Harry —be careful! "**

"Yes please be careful Harry we need our monthly check." Sophia said sarcastically.

Many people chuckled while the others glared at her.

**"You drink first," said Harry. "You are sure which is which, aren't you?"**

"**Positive," said Hermione. She took a long drink from the round bottle at the end, and shuddered.**

"**It's not poison?" said Harry anxiously.**

"**No — but it's like ice."**

"**Quick, go, before it wears off."**

"**Good luck — take care."**

"**GO!"**

**Hermione turned and walked straight through the purple fire.**

**Harry took a deep breath and picked up the smallest bottle. He turned to face the black flames.**

"**Here I come," he said, and he drained the little bottle in one gulp.**

**It was indeed as though ice was flooding his body. He put the bottle down and walked forward; he braced himself, saw the black flames licking his body, but couldn't feel them — for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire — then he was on the other side, in the last chamber.**

**There was already someone there — but it wasn't Snape. It wasn't even Voldemort.**

"Who is it?" Everyone asked.

"That's the end of the chapter," Amelia said and passed the book to the Minister, "I suggest you read next." She said smiling at him.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Sophia spoke up before Fudge could start, "We will all be going to be at the end of this chapter." She noticed a few people were yawning and looking tired.

Fudge opened the book and began to read.** "The Man with Two Faces." **

**It was Quirrell.**

"Quirrell!" Everyone except those who knew shouted.

"That idiot was after the stone?" Several people asked.

**"You!" gasped Harry.**

Everyone was nodding in agreement.

**Quirrell smiled. His face wasn't twitching at all.** "**Me," he said calmly. "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter."**

"Wait," Alicia said. "Are you telling me that he faked his stutter."

"That stutter was annoying as hell!" George added.

Everyone around the hall voiced their agreement.

"**But I thought — Snape —"**

"So did I." Several people muttered.

"**Severus?" Quirrell laughed, and it wasn't his usual quivering treble, either, but cold and sharp. "Yes, Severus does seem the type, doesn't he?**

"Yes." Fred and George said and Severus glared at them.

**So useful to have him swooping around like an overgrown bat.**

Despite the tension several people couldn't help but chuckle.

**Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?"**

"I really can't believe it," Dean said frowning. "That whole time he was faking it."

**Harry couldn't take it in. This couldn't be true, it couldn't.**

"**But Snape tried to kill me!"**

Severus glared at the book and then Harry.

"**No, no, no. I tried to kill you. Your friend Miss Granger accidentally knocked me over as she rushed to set fire to Snape at that Quidditch match.**

"That was really lucky," Bill said.

**She broke my eye contact with you. Another few seconds and I'd have got you off that broom. I'd have managed it before then if Snape hadn't been muttering a counter curse, trying to save you."**

"What?" Most of the hall yelled.

"Snape was trying to save you?" Dean asked incredulously.

"But what would he try to save you?" Seamus asked.

"Yeah, everyone knows he hates you," Lavender said.

"Be that as it may, Potter is a student and as a teacher it is my responsible to protect the students, even him." Severus said glaring at them all. Sophia just looked at him frowning his hateful attitude really bugged her.

"**Snape was trying to save me?"**

"Thank you Severus," Remus said sincerely and snuffles barked in agreement.

"**Of course," said Quirrell coolly. "Why do you think he wanted to referee your next match?** **He was trying to make sure I didn't do it again. Funny, really… he needn't have bothered. I couldn't do anything with Dumbledore watching.**

**All the other teachers thought Snape was trying to stop Gryffindor from winning, he did make himself unpopular…and what a waste of time, when after all that, I'm going to kill you tonight."**

"No you aren't!" The majority of the hall yelled.

**Quirrell snapped his fingers. Ropes sprang out of thin air and wrapped themselves tightly around Harry.**

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody shouted.

"**You're too nosy to live, Potter. **

**Scurrying around the school on Halloween like that, for all I knew you'd seen me coming to look at what was guarding the Stone."**

"**You let the troll in?"**

"**Certainly. **

"He let the troll in!" Several people shouted glaring at the book.

**I have a special gift with trolls — you must have seen what I did to the one in the chamber back there?**

"I'm definitely jealous of that gift," George said.

"So am I dear brother of mine," Fred said pompously. "So am I."

The hall roared with laughter breaking the growing tension.

**Unfortunately, while everyone else was running around looking for it, Snape, who already suspected me,** **went straight to the third floor to head me off — **

"That's why you and Ron saw him when you went to get Hermione on Halloween!" Someone shouted.

**and not only did my troll fail to beat you to death, that three-headed dog didn't even manage to bite Snape's leg off properly."**

Severus turned to glare at the book.

"**Now, wait quietly, Potter. I need to examine this interesting mirror."**

"What mirror?" Remus asked frowning

**It was only then that Harry realized what was standing behind Quirrell. It was the Mirror of Erised.**

"What?" Many people throughout the hall shouted.

"Why is the Mirror of Erised there?" Hannah asked confused.

"It must be the last protection," Susan said.

"If that's the case then what was protecting the stone before Christmas?" Hannah asked.

Everyone turned to look at the headmaster.

"Told you it was a set up." Sophia said smirking at the glaring headmaster.

"**This mirror is the key to finding the Stone," Quirrell murmured, tapping his way around the frame. "Trust Dumbledore to come up with something like this… but he's in London… I'll be far away by the time he gets back…"**

**All Harry could think of doing was to keep Quirrell talking and stop him from concentrating on the mirror.**

"That puts his attention back on you and I don't think that's a good idea," Remus said frowning

"Maybe you should think about escaping," Tonks said going pale with worry.

"**I saw you and Snape in the forest —" he blurted out.**

Several students snickered while Fred and George wagged their eyebrows suggestively causing more snickering, which in turn helped relieve some tension.

"**Yes," said Quirrell idly, walking around the mirror to look at the back. "He was on to me by that time, trying to find out how far I'd got. He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten me — as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side…"**

"What?" Everyone who didn't know yelled.

Many of the students were now shaking in fear.

**Quirrell came back out from behind the mirror and stared hungrily into it. "I see the Stone… I'm presenting it to my master… but where is it?"**

**Harry struggled against the ropes binding him, but they didn't give. He had to keep Quirrell from giving his whole attention to the mirror.**

"Good boy," Moody grunted.

**"But Snape always seemed to hate me so much."**

Snuffles whimpered and Remus looked down ashamed.

**"Oh, he does," said Quirrell casually, "heavens, yes. He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know? They loathed each other.**

"You should be mature enough not to take your anger out on an eleven year old boy." Tonks said harshly.

"Yes you shouldn't punish the child for the sins of the father." Sophia said her eyes focused on Draco who shifted uncomfortably.

Severus looked at her confused and saw where she was looking and frowned why would Draco be punished it must be in the future he thought. But she was right he shouldn't of let his anger take over with Harry.

**But he never wanted you dead."**

Several people snorted.

**"But I heard you a few days ago, sobbing — I thought Snape was threatening you…"**

**For the first time, a spasm of fear flitted across Quirrell's face.**

"**Sometimes," he said, "I find it hard to follow my master's instructions — he is a great wizard and I am weak —"**

"**You mean he was there in the classroom with you?" Harry gasped.**

"Voldemort was in the school?" Most of the hall yelled.

**"He is with me wherever I go," said Quirrell quietly. **

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bill asked confused.

**"I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it…**

"In my opinion the weak ones are the people who blindly follow a figurehead, whether he be good or evil," Sophia said smiling at them. "Especially one as hypocritical as Voldemort."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"Voldemort is all about blood purity yet he himself is a half-blood, who enjoys killing purebloods and torturing his followers." Sophia said.

"What?" Everyone who didn't know this fact shouted.

"Yes you all should think long and hard before you blindly follow someone." Sophia said.

**Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me." **

Many of the Slytherin's winced hearing this

**Quirrell shivered suddenly. "He does not forgive mistakes easily. When I failed to steal the stone from Gringotts,**

"So thats who broke in," Amelia muttered writing this down.

**he was most displeased. He punished me… decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me…"**

**Quirrell's voice trailed away. Harry was remembering his trip to Diagon Alley — how could he have been so stupid? He'd seen Quirrell there that very day, shaken hands with him in the Leaky Cauldron.**

Sophia snorted.

**Quirrell cursed under his breath.** "**I don't understand… is the Stone inside the mirror? Should I break it?"**

**Harry's mind was racing.** **What I want more than anything else in the world at the moment, he thought, is to find the Stone before Quirrell does. So if I look in the mirror, I should see myself finding it — which means I'll see where it's hidden!**

"Good," Moody said.

**But how can I look without Quirrell realizing what I'm up to?**

**He tried to edge to the left, to get in front of the glass without Quirrell noticing, but the ropes around his ankles were too tight: he tripped and fell over. **

**Quirrell ignored him. He was still talking to himself.**

"**What does this mirror do? How does it work? Help me, Master!"**

The tension in the room grew tenfold.

"M..m...master?" Neville squeaked horrified.

**And to Harry's horror, a voice answered, and the voice seemed to come from Quirrell himself.**

"What?" Several people shrieked.

"**Use the boy… Use the boy…"**

"What?" Most of all hall shouted.

"No!" All of Harry's friends shouted.

**Quirrell rounded on Harry.** "**Yes — Potter — come here."**

**He clapped his hands once, and the ropes binding Harry fell off. Harry got slowly to his feet.**

"**Come here," Quirrell repeated. "Look in the mirror and tell me what you see."**

**Harry walked toward him.** **I must lie, he thought desperately. I must look and lie about what I see, that's all.**

"You can't lie Harrikins," Fred said seriously.

Severus shook his head the Dark Lord would have seen his thoughts.

**Quirrell moved close behind him. Harry breathed in the funny smell that seemed to come from Quirrell's turban.**

Most of the hall looked sick.

**He closed his eyes, stepped in front of the mirror, and opened them again.**

**He saw his reflection, pale and scared-looking at first. **

**But a moment later, the reflection smiled at him. It put its hand into its pocket and pulled out a blood-red stone. It winked and put the Stone back in its pocket — and as it did so, Harry felt something heavy drop into his real pocket. Somehow — incredibly —he'd gotten the Stone.**

There was silence for a minute.

"How do you no its the real stone and not a fake and Dumbledore stole the real one?" Sophia asked the room

Many people started whispering discussing this.

**"Well?" said Quirrell impatiently. "What do you see?"**

**Harry screwed up his courage.** "**I see myself shaking hands with Dumbledore," he invented. "I — I've won the house cup for Gryffindor."**

"That's actually not bad," George said.

**Quirrell cursed again.**

**"Get out of the way," he said. As Harry moved aside, he felt the Philosopher's Stone against his leg. Dare he make a break for it?**

"Yes!" The room shouted.

**But he hadn't walked five paces before a high voice spoke, though Quirrell wasn't moving his lips.**

**"He lies… He lies…"**

"Where's that voice coming from?" Dean asked nervously

**"Potter, come back here!" Quirrell shouted. "Tell me the truth! What did you just see?"**

**The high voice spoke again.** "**Let me speak to him… face-to-face…"**

Remus suddenly realized what the chapter title meant and his eyes widened in horror, Moody also figured it out and both of his eyes narrowed.

**"Master, you are not strong enough!"**

"No!" Tonks shouted. "He's there?"

**"I have strength enough… for this…"**

**Harry felt as if Devil's Snare was rooting him to the spot. He couldn't move a muscle.**

"Now's not the time to freeze." Moody grumbled.

**Petrified, he watched as Quirrell reached up and began to unwrap his turban. What was going on? The turban fell away. Quirrell's head looked strangely small without it. Then he turned slowly on the spot.**

**Harry would have screamed, but he couldn't make a sound. Where there should have been a back to Quirrell's head, there was a face, the most terrible face Harry had ever seen. It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.**

Strangled screams and cries were heard throughout the hall.

Fudge stopped reading and he was staring at the book in shock, his face was pale and his eyes were wide as saucers._ 'He's alive...You-Know-Who wasn't dead.'_

"He had You-Know-Who on the back of his head?" Alicia shrieked.

"He was in our defense classroom for a year!" Katie yelled looking disturbed.

Everyone paled realizing they had Voldemort in the classroom with them all year.

"No...no...no." Umbridge was repeating over and over again.

Fred and George looked pale. "What's wrong?" Bill asked them concerned.

"We bounced snowballs-" Fred said slowly.

"Off the back of Quirrell's head-" George said looking stunned.

"So that means we were hitting Voldemort." Fred and George said together, everyone stared at them horrified until they spoke again.

All of the Slytherin's looked horrified how could their parents support something like that it wasn't even human they glanced at each other deciding they needed to rethink their life goals.

**"Harry Potter…" it whispered.**

**Harry tried to take a step backward but his legs wouldn't move.**

Sophia wrapped Harry in her arms and she leant forward brushing his hair out of his face.

**"See what I have become?" The face said. "Mere shadow and vapor… I have form only when I can share another's body… but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds…**

**Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past weeks… you saw faithful Quirrell drinking it for me in the forest… and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own… Now… why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket?"**

"Oh no, he knows," Colin squeaked pulling Dennis who was shaking closer to him.

**So he knew. The feeling suddenly surged back into Harry's legs. He stumbled backward.**

**"Don't be a fool," snarled the face. "Better save your own life and join me…**

Sophia glared at the book, "Yes lets all bow down to a half blood wisp of smoke." She snorted and glanced at the Slytherin's who were looking uncomfortable.

**or you'll meet the same end as your parents… They died begging me for mercy…"**

"Don't believe him Harry," Remus said. "James and Lily would never."

**"LIAR!" Harry shouted suddenly.**

**Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.**

Glares were sent to the book.

**"How touching…" it hissed. "I always value bravery… Yes, boy, your parents were brave… I killed your father first; and he put up a courageous fight… **

Snuffles whimpered and buried his head in his paws. Remus bowed his head.

**but your mother needn't have died… she was trying to protect you…**

Severus also looked up. _'Did the Dark Lord actually give her the chance to live?'_

Sophia spoke up, "She was told to move but refused Voldemort was only there to kill Harry because of that dam fake prophecy."

Severus face dropped and guilt filled him. Neville was glaring at Dumbledore while Draco was holding him back. Everyone else looked confused and were whispering about a prophecy.

**Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain."**

**"NEVER!"**

McGonagall inwardly swelled with pride._ 'My little lion.'_

**Harry sprang toward the flame door, but Voldemort screamed "SEIZE HIM!" **

"Don't touch him!" The majority of the hall shouted

**and the next second, Harry felt Quirrell's hand close on his wrist. At once, a needle-sharp pain seared across Harry's scar; **

Glances were cast towards Harry.

**his head felt as though it was about to split in two;** **he yelled, struggling with all his might, and to his surprise, Quirrell let go of him.**

"What'd happened?" Dennis said.

**The pain in his head lessened — he looked around wildly to see where Quirrell had gone, and saw him hunched in pain, looking at his fingers — they were blistering before his eyes.**

Some people were looking at Harry in awe others slightly fearful.

"Was that accidental magic?" Asked Sarah Kettleworth a seventh year Ravenclaw.

**"Seize him! SEIZE HIM!" shrieked Voldemort again, and Quirrell lunged, knocking Harry clean off his feet landing on top of him, both hands around Harry's neck — **

Remus was taking deep breaths trying to stay calm.

**Harry's scar was almost blinding him with pain, yet he could see Quirrell howling in agony.**

**"Master, I cannot hold him — my hands — my hands!"**

**And Quirrell, though pinning Harry to the ground with his knees, let go of his neck and stared, bewildered, at his own palms — Harry could see they looked burned, raw, red, and shiny.**

More looks were shot at Harry and Sophia openly glared at them.

**"Then kill him, fool, and be done!" screeched Voldemort.**

"No." People were screaming

**Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse,** **but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell's face.**

"Good boy Potter," Moody grunted in approval.

**"AAAARGH!"**

**Quirrell rolled off him, his face blistering, too, and then Harry knew: Quirrell couldn't touch his bare skin, not without suffering terrible pain —**

This caused many people to look confused.

**his only chance was to keep hold of Quirrell, keep him in enough pain to stop him from doing a curse.**

**Harry jumped to his feet, caught Quirrell by the arm, and hung on as tight as he could. **

Kingsley and Moody both nodded in approval.

**Quirrell screamed and tried to throw Harry off — the pain in Harry's head was building — he couldn't see — he could only hear Quirrell's terrible shrieks and Voldemort's yells of, "KILL HIM! KILL HIM!" and other voices, maybe in Harry's own head, crying, "Harry! Harry!"**

"Thank Merlin," Tonks said in relief. "Someone is coming."

**He felt Quirrell's arm wrenched from his grasp, knew all was lost, and fell into blackness, down… down… down…**

"No!" Several people yelled.

**Something gold was glinting just above him. The Snitch! He tried to catch it, but his arms were too heavy.**

"Am I missing something?" Charlie asked looking confused.

"Did he hit his head?" Dean asked

**He blinked. It wasn't the Snitch at all. It was a pair of glasses. How strange.**

Several people raised questioning eyebrows.

**He blinked again. The smiling face of Albus Dumbledore swam into view above him.**

The great hall was instantly relieved of tension, but soon turned to glare at Dumbledore.

**"Good afternoon, Harry," said Dumbledore.**

Fred and George snorted.

**Harry stared at him. Then he remembered: "Sir! The Stone! It was Quirrell! He's got the Stone! Sir, quick —"**

"He had a one track mind," Tracey said snickering.

**"Calm yourself, dear boy, you are a little behind the times," said Dumbledore. "Quirrell does not have the Stone."**

**"Then who does? Sir, I —"**

**"Harry, please relax, or Madam Pomfrey will have me thrown out."**

Tonks snorted. "Somehow I doubt that."

**Harry swallowed and looked around him. He realized he must be in the hospital wing. He was lying in a bed with white linen sheets, and next to him was a table piled high with what looked like half the candy shop.**

"Sheep," Sophia said and they looked down ashamed.

"**Tokens from your friends and admirers," said Dumbledore, beaming. "What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows.**

Many of the students shook their heads.

"There were rumors of what happened," George said.

"But nothing came close to the truth," Fred added.

**I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a toilet seat.**

Most of the hall laughed.

Fred and George stood up and took a bow smiling.

**No doubt they thought it would amuse you. **

"I'm sure it did," Sophia said smiling

**Madam Pomfrey, however, felt it might not be very hygienic, and confiscated it."**

"Ahh come on Madam Pomfrey," Fred whined.

"We cleaned it before we sent it," George said.

**"How long have I been in here?"**

**"Three days.**

The hall gasped.

**Mr. Ronald Weasley and Miss Granger will be most relieved you have come round, they have been extremely worried."**

**"But sir, the Stone —"**

"You're right Tracey, he does have a one track mind," Daphne said.

**"I see you are not to be distracted. Very well, the Stone. Professor Quirrell did not manage to take it from you. I arrived in time to prevent that, although you were doing very well on your own, I must say."**

Remus was growling at Dumbledore who was smirking

**"You got there? You got Hermione's owl?"**

"**We must have crossed in midair. No sooner had I reached London than it became clear to me that the place I should be was the one I had just left. **

_'It shouldn't of taken him so long to get back.' _Amelia Bones thought frowning. _'It really was a set up, that man was going away for a very long time.'_

**I arrived just in time to pull Quirrell off you."**

**"It was you."**

**"I feared I might be too late."**

**"You nearly were, I couldn't have kept him off the Stone much longer –"**

**"Not the Stone, boy, you — the effort involved nearly killed you. **

Snuffles whimpered and Remus visibly blanched.

Everyone looked at Harry sadly.

**For one terrible moment there, I was afraid it had.**

Several people paled at this.

"Yes he would have lost his weapon." Sophia said scathingly

**As for the Stone, it has been destroyed."**

Sophia burst out laughing, "sure he destroyed it."

"What?" Several students gasped.

"But won't Nicolas Flamel die?" Lavender gasped.

"**Destroyed?" said Harry blankly. "But your friend — Nicolas Flamel —"**

"**Oh, you know about Nicolas?" said Dumbledore, sounding quite delighted. **"**You did do the thing properly, didn't you? **

"They shouldn't of been doing anything." Severus muttered

**Well, Nicolas and I have had a little chat, and agreed it's all for the best."**

"**But that means he and his wife will die, won't they?"**

"**They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes, they will die."**

"That's so sad," Lavender said quietly.

**Dumbledore smiled at the look of amazement on Harry's face.** "**To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."**

Draco rolled his eyes. _'Barmy old coot.'_

**"You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! **

"Who wouldn't want that?" Pansy asked.

Daphne and Tracey rolled their eyes at their fellow Slytherin.

**The two things most human beings would choose above all — the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."**

**Harry lay there, lost for words. Dumbledore hummed a little and smiled at the ceiling.**

"**Sir?" said Harry. "I've been thinking… sir — even if the Stone's gone, Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who —"**

"**Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."**

"So that's where you got that ridiculous saying," Neville said shaking his head fondly at Harry.

"**Yes, sir. Well, Voldemort's going to try other ways of coming back, isn't he? I mean, he hasn't gone, has he?"**

"**No, Harry, he has not. He is still out there somewhere, perhaps looking for another body to share… not being truly alive, he cannot be killed. He left Quirrell to die;** **he shows just as little mercy to his followers as his enemies.**

"I hope you all remember that." Sophia said staring at the Slytherin table.

**Nevertheless, Harry, while you may only have delayed his return to power, it will merely take someone else who is prepared to fight what seems a losing battle next time — and if he is delayed again, and again, why, he may never return to power."**

**Harry nodded, but stopped quickly, because it made his head hurt. Then he said, "Sir, there are some other things I'd like to know, if you can tell me… things I want to know the truth about…"**

"**The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution. However, I shall answer your questions unless I have a very good reason not to,** **in which case I beg you'll forgive me. I shall not, of course, lie."**

"**Well… Voldemort said that he only killed my mother because she tried to stop him from killing me. But why would he want to kill me in the first place?"**

Everyone turned at one and glared at Dumbledore.

**Dumbledore sighed very deeply this time.** "**Alas, the first thing you ask me, I cannot tell you. Not today. Not now. You will know, one day… put it from your mind for now, Harry. When you are older… I know you hate to hear this… when you are ready, you will know."**

"Harry was ready the moment you abandoned him on a doorstep, the moment you gave away his right to have a happy childhood." Sophia said

Remus and snuffles had tears trailing down their cheeks while the adults shifted uncomfortably.

**And Harry knew it would be no good to argue.** "**But why couldn't Quirrell touch me?"**

"I would like to know the answer to that," Amelia said.

"**Your mother died to save you. If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign… to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever."**

"Love is the most powerful magic of all," Luna said dreamily.

"It was the ritual Lilly performed." Sophia said

**"It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good."**

Several of the students still looked sort of confused but said nothing.

**Dumbledore now became very interested in a bird out on the windowsill, which gave Harry time to dry his eyes on the sheet. When he had found his voice again, Harry said, "And the invisibility cloak — do you know who sent it to me?"**

"**Ah — your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Useful things… your father used it mainly for sneaking off to the kitchens to steal food when he was here."**

Remus snorted," Among other things."

"**And there's something else…"**

"**Fire away."**

"**Quirrell said Snape —"**

"**Professor Snape, Harry."**

"**Yes, him —**

Fred and George snorted.

**Quirrell said he hates me because he hated my father. Is that true?"**

"**Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Mr. Malfoy. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive."**

"**What?"**

"**He saved his life."**

"What?" Many people shouted.

"Why would he hate his father for that?" Dean asked confused.

Severus sat glaring at the roof.

"**What?"**

**"Yes…" said Dumbledore dreamily. "Funny, the way people's minds work, isn't it? Professor Snape couldn't bear being in your father's debt… I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because he felt that would make him and your father even. Then he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace…"**

Remus looked skeptical. "Somehow I doubt that's what it was.

_'I did it for Lily.' _Severus thought to himself sadly.

**Harry tried to understand this but it made his head pound, so he stopped.**

"**And sir, there's one more thing…"**

"**Just the one?"**

"**How did I get the Stone out of the mirror?"**

"**Ah, now, I'm glad you asked me that. It was one of my more brilliant ideas,** **and between you and me, that's saying something. **

"So modest," Draco sneered.

**You see, only one who wanted to find the Stone — find it, but not use it — would be able to get it,** **otherwise they'd just see themselves making gold or drinking Elixir of Life. **

**My brain surprises even me sometimes…"**

Several people snorted at this.

**"Now, enough questions. I suggest you make a start on these sweets. Ah! Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans! I was unfortunate enough in my youth to come across a vomit flavored one, **

Most of the girls and some boys wrinkled their noses in disgust.

**and since then I'm afraid I've rather lost my liking for them — but I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you?"** **He smiled and popped the golden-brown bean into his mouth.**

**Then he choked and said, "Alas! Ear wax!"**

"Ew," Lavender squealed.

**Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was a nice woman, but very strict.**

Madam Pomfrey smiled at this.

"**Just five minutes," Harry pleaded.**

"**Absolutely not."**

"**You let Professor Dumbledore in…"**

"**Well, of course, that was the headmaster, quite different. You need rest."**

"**I am resting, look, lying down and everything. Oh, go on, Madam Pomfrey…"**

"It won't work," Fred said.

"**Oh, very well," she said. "But five minutes only."**

"What?" Fred shouted. "That's no fair!" He pouted and crossed his arms over his chest.

**And she let Ron and Hermione in.**

"**Harry!"**

**Hermione looked ready to fling her arms around him again, but Harry was glad she held herself in as his head was still very sore.**

"**Oh, Harry, we were sure you were going to — Dumbledore was so worried —"**

"**The whole school's talking about it," said Ron. "What really happened?"**

**It was one of those rare occasions when the true story is even more strange and exciting than the wild rumors.**

"Definitely." Several people said.

**Harry told them everything:**

**Quirrell; the mirror; the Stone; and Voldemort. Ron and Hermione were a very good audience; they gasped in all the right places, and when Harry told them what was under Quirrell's turban, Hermione screamed out loud.**

"**So the Stone's gone?" said Ron finally. "Flamel's just going to die?"**

"**That's what I said, but Dumbledore thinks that — what was it? — 'to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.'"**

"**I always said he was off his rocker," said Ron, looking quite impressed at how crazy his hero was.**

Most of the hall snickered and Ron turned red.

"**So what happened to you two?" said Harry.**

"**Well, I got back all right," said Hermione. "I brought Ron round — that took a while —and we were dashing up to the owlery to contact Dumbledore when we met him in the entrance hall — he already knew — he just said, 'Harry's gone after him, hasn't he?' and hurtled off to the third floor."**

Moody was staring at him with his magical eye, while the adults glared at him.

"**D'you think he meant you to do it?" said Ron. "Sending you your father's cloak and everything?"**

Sophia nodded.

Snuffles growled quietly at the headmaster.

"**Well, " Hermione exploded, "if he did — I mean to say that's terrible — you could have been killed."**

"**No, it isn't," said Harry thoughtfully. "He's a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help.**

Dark looks were exchanged by the adults.

**I don't think it was an accident he let me find out how the mirror worked. It's almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could…"**

Remus turned to glare at the headmaster who wasn't looking at anyone.

"**Yeah, Dumbledore's off his rocker, all right," said Ron proudly. "Listen, you've got to be up for the end-of-year feast tomorrow. The points are all in and Slytherin won, of course —**

The Slytherins were now glaring

**you missed the last Quidditch match, we were steamrollered by Ravenclaw without you — but the food'll be good."**

**At that moment, Madam Pomfrey bustled over.** "**You've had nearly fifteen minutes, now OUT" she said firmly.**

**After a good night's sleep, Harry felt nearly back to normal.**

"**I want to go to the feast," he told Madam Pomfrey as she straightened his many candy boxes. "I can, can't I?"**

"**Professor Dumbledore says you are to be allowed to go," she said stiffly, as though in her opinion Professor Dumbledore didn't realize how risky feasts could be. **

Several students snorted while Pomfrey huffed causing several people to chuckle.

**"And you have another visitor."**

"**Oh, good," said Harry. "Who is it?"**

**Hagrid sidled through the door as he spoke.**

**As usual when he was indoors, Hagrid looked too big to be allowed. He sat down next to Harry, took one look at him, and burst into tears.**

"**It's — all — my — ruddy — fault!"** **he sobbed, his face in his hands. "I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy!**

"He would've found out on his own," Remus said sighing.

**I told him! It was the only thing he didn't know, an' I told him! Yeh could've died! All fer a dragon egg! I'll never drink again! I should be chucked out an' made ter live as a Muggle!"**

"**Hagrid!" said Harry, shocked to see Hagrid shaking with grief and remorse, great tears leaking down into his beard. "Hagrid, he'd have found out somehow, this is Voldemort we're talking about, he'd have found out even if you hadn't told him."**

"**Yeh could've died!" sobbed Hagrid. "An' don' say the name!"**

"**VOLDEMORT!" Harry bellowed, and Hagrid was so shocked, he stopped crying.**

Fred and George snickered.

**"I've met him and I'm calling him by his name. Please cheer up, Hagrid, we saved the Stone, it's gone, he can't use it. Have a Chocolate Frog, I've got loads…"**

"aaww" many of the girls cooed.

**Hagrid wiped his nose on the back of his hand and said, "That reminds me. I've got yeh a present."**

"**It's not a stoat sandwich, is it?" said Harry anxiously,**

People began chuckling as Hagrid blushed.

**and at last Hagrid gave a weak chuckle.**

"**Nah. Dumbledore gave me the day off yesterday ter fix it. 'course, he shoulda sacked me instead — anyway, got yeh this…"**

**It seemed to be a handsome, leather-covered book. Harry opened it curiously. It was full of wizard photographs. Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.**

"That was nice of him," Charlie said.

"**Sent owls off ter all yer parents' old school friends,** **askin' fer photos… knew yeh didn' have any… d'yeh like it?"**

**Harry couldn't speak, but Hagrid understood.**

Hagrid smiled at Harry.

**Harry made his way down to the end-of-year feast alone that night. He had been held up by Madam Pomfrey's fussing about, insisting on giving him one last checkup, so the Great Hall was already full. It was decked out in the Slytherin colors of green and silver to celebrate Slytherin's winning the house cup for the seventh year in a row.**

The twins made sounds of disgust.

**A huge banner showing the Slytherin serpent covered the wall behind the High Table.**

**When Harry walked in there was a sudden hush, and then everybody started talking loudly at once. He slipped into a seat between Ron and Hermione at the Gryffindor table and tried to ignore the fact that people were standing up to look at him.**

**Fortunately, Dumbledore arrived moments later. The babble died away.**

"**Another year gone!" Dumbledore said cheerfully. "And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully your heads are all a little fuller than they were… you have the whole summer ahead to get them nice and empty before next year starts…**

"**Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding, and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; in third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."**

**A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Harry could see Draco Malfoy banging his goblet on the table. It was a sickening sight.**

"Not for long," Fred said smiling.

"What do you mean?" Bill asked.

"You'll see." Fred smirked

"**Yes, Yes, well done, Slytherin," said Dumbledore. "However, recent events must be taken into account."**

**The room went very still. The Slytherins' smiles faded a little.**

Several of the Gryffindors smirked.

**Ahem," said Dumbledore. "I have a few last-minute points to dish out.**

**Let me see. Yes…First — to Mr. Ronald Weasley…" Ron went purple in the face; he looked like a radish with a bad sunburn.**

"… **for the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."**

**Gryffindor cheers nearly raised the bewitched ceiling; the stars overhead seemed to quiver. Percy could be heard telling the other prefects, "My brother, you know! My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"**

**At last there was silence again.**

"**Second — to Miss Hermione Granger… for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."**

**Hermione buried her face in her arms; Harry strongly suspected she had burst into tears.**

**Gryffindors up and down the table were beside themselves — they were a hundred points up.**

"**Third — to Mr. Harry Potter…" said Dumbledore. The room went deadly quiet. "… for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house sixty points."**

"Brave little Harrikins." Fred said wiping away a fake tear.

**The din was deafening. Those who could add up while yelling themselves hoarse knew that Gryffindor now had four hundred and seventy-two points — exactly the same as Slytherin. They had tied for the house cup — if only Dumbledore had given Harry just one more point.**

**Dumbledore raised his hand. The room gradually fell silent.**

"**There are all kinds of courage," said Dumbledore, smiling. "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."**

"Way to go Neville!" Several Gryffindors shouted.

**Someone standing outside the Great Hall might well have thought some sort of explosion had taken place,** **so loud was the noise that erupted from the Gryffindor table. **

The Slytherins glared at the Gryffindor table.

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood up to yell and cheer as Neville, white with shock, disappeared under a pile of people hugging him. He had never won so much as a point for Gryffindor before. **

"I did too," Neville muttered. "In herbology."

**Harry, still cheering, nudged Ron in the ribs and pointed at Malfoy, who couldn't have looked more stunned and horrified if he'd just had the Body-Bind Curse put on him.**

**Which means," Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin,** **"we need a little change of decoration."**

"You know that was rather unfair of you Albus you should have award the points before the feast." Sophia said

The Slytherin's all turned to glare at the Headmaster.

**He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall's hand, with a horrible, forced smile. He caught Harry's eye and Harry knew at once that Snape's feelings toward him hadn't changed one jot.**

**This didn't worry Harry. It seemed as though life would be back to normal next year, or as normal as it ever was at Hogwarts.**

**It was the best evening of Harry's life, better than winning at Quidditch, or Christmas, or knocking out mountain trolls… he would never, ever forget tonight.**

**Harry had almost forgotten that the exam results were still to come, but come they did. To their great surprise, both he and Ron passed with good marks; Hermione, of course, had the best grades of the first years.**

**Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one. They had hoped that Goyle, who was almost as stupid as he was mean, might be thrown out, but he had passed, too. It was a shame, but as Ron said, you couldn't have everything in life.**

Several people snorted, Crabbe and Goyle just looked around stupidly.

**And suddenly, their wardrobes were empty, their trunks were packed, Neville's toad was found lurking in a corner of the toilets;** **notes were handed out to all students, warning them not to use magic over the holidays ("I always hope they'll forget to give us these," said Fred Weasley sadly);**

"Never going to happen Mr. Weasley I assure you," McGonagall said sharply.

**Hagrid was there to take them down to the fleet of boats that sailed across the lake; they were boarding the Hogwarts Express; talking and laughing as the countryside became greener and tidier; eating Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans as they sped past Muggle towns; pulling off their wizard robes and putting on jackets and coats; pulling into platform nine and three-quarters at King's Cross Station.**

**It took quite a while for them all to get off the platform. A wizened old guard was up by the ticket barrier, letting them go through the gate in twos and threes so they didn't attract attention by all bursting out of a solid wall at once and alarming the Muggles.**

Fred and George exchanged looks.

"**You must come and stay this summer," said Ron, "both of you — I'll send you an owl."**

"**Thanks," said Harry, "I'll need something to look forward to." People jostled them as they moved forward toward the gateway back to the Muggle world. Some of them called:**

"**Bye, Harry!"**

"**See you, Potter!"**

"**Still famous," said Ron, grinning at him.**

"**Not where I'm going, I promise you," said Harry.**

"Oh great, does this mean we're going to have to read about the fat muggles again?" Fred asked.

**He, Ron, and Hermione passed through the gateway together.**

**"There he is, Mom, there he is, look!"** **It was Ginny Weasley, Ron's younger sister, but she wasn't pointing at Ron.**

"The fan girl is back." Sophia said chuckling

"**Harry Potter!" she squealed. "Look, Mom! I can see —"**

"**Be quiet, Ginny, and it's rude to point." Mrs. Weasley smiled down at them.**

"**Busy year?" she said.**

"**Very," said Harry.**

"Understatement," Bill said.

**"Thanks for the fudge and the sweater, Mrs. Weasley."**

"**Oh, it was nothing, dear."**

"**Ready, are you?"**

**It was Uncle Vernon, still purple-faced, still mustached, still looking furious at the nerve of Harry, carrying an owl in a cage in a station full of ordinary people. **

Many of the pure-bloods rolled their eyes.

**Behind him stood Aunt Petunia and Dudley, looking terrified at the very sight of Harry.**

"**You must be Harry's family!" said Mrs. Weasley.**

"Not any more there not," Sophia said smiling.

"**In a manner of speaking," said Uncle Vernon. "Hurry up, boy, we haven't got all day." He walked away.**

"So rude," Hannah said.

**Harry hung back for a last word with Ron and Hermione.**

"**See you over the summer, then."**

"**Hope you have — er — a good holiday," said Hermione, looking uncertainly after Uncle Vernon, shocked that anyone could be so unpleasant.**

"**Oh, I will," said Harry, and they were surprised at the grin that was spreading over his face. "They don't know we're not allowed to use magic at home. I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer…"**

Most of the hall laughed.

Fudge closed the book, "That's the end of the chapter."

Sophia waved her hand and the pink people vanished. "Where did you send them? Fudge asked.

"Oh just to the Dungeons for the night." She said smiling.

"Right everyone off to bed return by 10am breakfast will be served in your common rooms." Sophia said to the hall. She turned to her guests, "If you all come with me I have rooms set up for you all."

Sophia shifted Harry not wanting to wake him, Severus came to her rescue and lifted him up into his arms. She looked up and smiled at him in shock sending shivers through him.

Sophia turned and walked towards the door with Severus and Harry next to her with Luna, Draco, Neville, Madam Longbottom, Mr & Mrs Malfoy, Amelia, Kingsley, Moody, Remus, Snuffles and Fudge all trailing behind her.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Sophia arrived on the seventh floor and many people were looking at her confused while Draco and Neville were smirking. She strode in front of the wall three times thinking,

_I need a sitting room with enough bedrooms for everyone._

Smirking she opened the large door and walked in and glanced around, '_yes this will do nicely she thought_.' The sitting room was large with a roaring fireplace and several sofas placed around the room it was richly furnished with a black and silver colour scheme throughout. At the back of the room there were several doors with a plaque on each door.

"Welcome to the room of requirement I hope you all have a pleasant sleep and call a house elf in the morning for breakfast.' Sophia said smiling at the group. Draco and Neville smiled at her and said good night and walked towards their shared room. Slowly everyone said good night and headed into their own rooms. The only ones remaining were Sophia, Severus holding Harry, Remus and snuffles. Sophia turned and headed towards Harry's room, she held the door open so Severus called easily carry Harry in.

Severus gently laid Harry on the large four poster bed, Sophia smiled and waved her hand changing Harry into dark green silk pyjamas.' She summoned a glass of water and placed it on the bedside table. Gently leaning over she removed his glasses and folded them and placed them next to his glass of water, she also placed his wand. Remus and Snuffles were stood awkwardly near the door watching. Sofia brushed Harry's hair across his forehead softly and pulled the covers over him and tucked him in, "sweet dreams Harry," she said softly placing a kiss on his head. Severus watched her, a small smile on his face she looked so calm and content his breath caught in his throat when she looked up at him the gazes locking. Harry smiled in his sleep feeling oddly comfortable. This was the first time anyone had tucked him since his parents had died.

"Thank you for carrying him." She muttered, he watched her before answering, "It was no trouble and I'm sorry about early I really do hate teaching and I know I was wrong for judging Harry it's just hard to let old prejudices lie. I've been so used to playing my part that it's hard to remember who I am.' He turned not looking at her, Sophia reached over grasping his hands in hers. "We all do things were ashamed of just don't glare at me it unnerving," she said chuckling causing him to laugh to.

Sophia turned and frowned noticing Remus and Sirius by the door not moving she motioned them back into the sitting room with Severus following confused.

"Sirius you can transform no one can leave there rooms till morning," Sophia said sitting on a large sofa and pulling Severus down as well who was stood looking awkward. She shifted slightly leaning against him and yawned slightly. It had been a long day and it was starting to catch up with her.

Remus took a seat opposite them and Sirius soon followed once he had transformed.

"Ok spill I can tell there something eating away at you." Sophia asked watching them both carefully.

"You can't take Harry from me." Sirius said glaring his black stupidity shining through.

Sophia sighed, '_she knew this would happen_,' taking a deep breath, "Sirius I know you are his god father but you have had plenty of opportunities to save Harry and you ignored all of them," Sirius looked like he was about to protest but was stopped from the glare Severus sent to him, "I adopted Harry yesterday morning making him my heir."

Sirius and Remus stared opened mouthed at her. "Will we be able to see him?" Remus asked quietly afraid of losing his cub.

"If that is what Harry wants then yes you may but I'm afraid it won't be until July at the earliest and I suggest in that time you both sort your priorities out. Harry doesn't need people who are going to ignore and abandon him he needs people to guide and protect him and be there for him. So far neither of you can provide that." Sophia watched them carefully letting it sink in.

"But I'm his god father." Sirius said in outrage. Severus sneered at him, "Some godfather you are you abandoned him to a life of starvation and beatings with the Dursleys rather than looking after him like James and Lily wanted, you run off after a rat."

Sirius was glaring furiously at him and was about to protest when Remus grabbed his arm and shook his head, he knew Severus was right.

"Why can't we see Harry until July?" Remus asked confused trying to keep Sirius in his seat.

"I am taking Harry, Draco, Neville and Luna if she is allowed around the world. They will be studying as they go and will be prepared to take their OWL's when they return. Harry has never been on holiday he has no happy memories so I plan to give him some and the others some culture." Sophia said.

"Are you sure you can handle four teens by yourself?" Remus asked concerned.

Sophia briefly glanced at Severus through the corner of her eyes, "Yes I can. Harry needs this you know deep down he needs this break some normality in his life."

Remus and Sirius both nodded in agreement sensing there defeat they stood up. "Goodnight gentleman oh and Sirius when you're a free man I suggest you visit a mind healer." Sirius nodded at her and they both headed to their room.

Sophia and Severus sat for a long while in silence both Severus stood up, "well I guess I should be heading to bed it's getting late," he muttered.

Sophia smiled and stood up facing him, "Thank you for today, are you sure you want to leave Britain?" He stood for a moment looking at her, he noticed her eyes sparkled with hope. "Yes there's nothing to keep me here."

"Good I want you to be happy," Sophia paused shifting nervously before continuing, "would you like to travel with us or moved to the Island straight away."

"Thank you for the offer but I need time to think about it. I'm still adjusting to Potter not being a pampered prince." Sophia chuckled at this.

"Well goodnight Severus." Sophia said and turned and walked to her room and smiled when she heard him mutter goodnight.

Severus stood there for awhile staring at Sophia door he smiled slightly before going to one of the rooms to sleep.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Harry woke up and rubbed his eyes sitting up he realised someone must had removed his glasses he patted the nightstand and found them and put them on. He gasped the room he was in was simply amazing the bed was huge with silk sheets he had never been somewhere so fancy.

"Dobby," Harry called.

Dobby popped into view bouncing with excitement.

"Master Harry Potter is calling Dobby Sir, What can Dobby do for you?" He asked

Harry smiled suppressing a laugh, "Dobby where am I?"

"You is in the come and go room Mistress Rosewood and Master Potions master put you to bed last night." Dobby said bouncing.

"Snape, Snape put me to bed." Harry said in shock.

"Yes master Harry with the mistresses help sir. Dobby is getting you breakfast sir," and with that he popped away leaving Harry in confusion.

Dobby soon popped back in placed Harry's breakfast on the bed and popped away again before Harry even had chance to say thanks.

Harry smiled as he ate his breakfast, he was extremely happy. Sophia had rescued him he wouldn't have to go back to the Dursely's ever again and he had someone who cared for him because she promised to always be there as long as she wanted him and he planned to hold her to that promise. He was so excited to go travel and with that in mind he finished his breakfast and quickly left the room to see if Neville and Draco were awake.

oOoOoOo

Sophia woke smiling she was making progress she could feel it. She pulled herself up in bed and ate her breakfast that a house elf had just popped in. Smiling she picked out emerald green robes and changed into them, fixing her makeup and pinning parts of her curls up she was ready for what today would bring.

Sophia decided to go check on Luna who was in the next room to her, she paused outside the door and knocked. "come in," she heard Luna call and walked in leaving the door open slightly .

"Good morning sweetheart did you sleep well?" Sophia asked walking to stand behind Luna who was sat on a stool in front of the dressing table.

"Yes thank you it was excellent." Luna said smiling dreamily.

"Good I'm glad." Sophia said and took the brush off Luna and began brushing her hair for her.

"You know I always wanted a little sister or a daughter I could do this with." Sophia smiling at Luna in the mirror who had tears glistening in her eyes.

"My mum used to do it when I was little," Luna paused, "do you not have a husband or children then?" Severus choose this moment to leave his room and he heard them speaking and paused to listen to Sophia's answer.

Sophia sighed and took a deep breath, "No I am all alone."

"Do you not want one?" Luna asked innocently.

Sophia chuckled while adding loose curls to Luna's hair, "I would love a partner but the problem is I'm immortal I can only marry when I find true love and until I do I can never have a child. I have searched for centuries but have never found my other half. I should just give up."

"You can't give up on true love everyone deserves happiness. You and Professor Snape seem close." Luna added cheekily

Sophia blushed bright red and Severus perked up hearing this, "Professor Snape is a lovely man once you get past his cold attitude but I could never play second best as long as he loves Lilly he can never truly love me and being immortal for the connection to truly work he would have to truly without a doubt want me and I don't see that happening." Severus frowned hearing this.

Luna frowned seeing how sad Sophia had become, "Don't give up your other half is always closer than you think."

"You child are an angel in disguise," Sophia said kissing the top of her head, "I have a gift for you, stand up and close your eyes."

Luna's frowned but stood up anyway and closed her eyes waiting. Sophia smirked and waved her hand over Luna, she was down wearing light blue Royal robes with the family crest over her heart and the Lovegod crest just above it. Sophia gently clasped a diamond necklace around her next that was in the shape of a bird."

"Open your eyes Luna," Sophia whispered, Luna's eyes opened and grew wider as she took in her appearance she looked like an entirely different person the robes flattered her growing figure and her hair had been half pinned up with loose curls flowing down her back. Flowers were pinning her hair in place. She placed a hand over the necklace as a tear trailed down her cheek, "thank you it's beautiful."

"Never take the necklace off it will always take you home when you are in danger it can go through any ward. Why don't we go see if the boys are awake yet?" Sophia smiled and they both walked into the living room where Severus, Draco, Neville and Harry were all sat waiting for them everyone else had already left for the great hall.

"Good morning." Luna said brightly, the boys looked up and stared opened mouthed at the new Luna. Neville was the first to recover and jumped up and bowed in front of Luna causing her to giggle and blush.

"My lady would you allow me to escort you to breakfast?" Neville asked, while Harry and Draco sniggered in the back ground.

Blushing Luna curtsied, "Of course my Lord it would be an honour."

Sophia started chuckling now and glanced at Severus who was smiling.

"Not so fast boys come stand in front of me please you will not leave dressed like that." Sophia said smirking as they all looked at their clothes and quickly moved to stand before her.

Sophia waved her hand across all three of them muttering quietly, they were now all wearing Royal robes of dark blue with knee high black dragon hide boots over the top of them. The each had black clocks on that had the royal crest over there heart with their family crest just above. Sophia smiled and attached bracelets to each of their wrists, Neville's had a lion pendant, Draco's a snake and Harry a Phoenix.

"There we go gentleman now you look like princes, never take the bracelets off they like Luna's necklace will always take you to safety through any ward when you are in need." Sophia said

Harry was staring in amazement at his new clothes they were the greatest thing he owned.

Severus smiled they all looked completely different people he rose and approached Sophia and bowed, "May I escort a Lady to the great hall?" Sophia smiled at him and curtsied taking his arm in hers, "That would be most welcome my Lord."

Harry was laughing at this but soon stopped when he saw Draco looking at him. Draco turned smiling and bowed to Harry, "May I escort a lady down to the great hall." Everyone burst out laughing and Harry smacked him round the head, "prat," he muttered. However he soon linked arms with Draco as they followed Sophia and Severus out of the door with Luna and Neville trailing behind them.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N** – New chapter hope you enjoy.

DISCLAIMER- JK Rowling Owns the entire Harry Potter world and the women is brilliant for creating it. This is purely for fun nothing more.

Everyone was settled in the great hall waiting for Sophia and the others to enter. There was much talk amongst the students especially the older years who had remembered the rumours that floated around about the chamber of secrets being opened in Harry's second year.

At the sound of footsteps approaching everyone turned as one to watch the door. Instantly everyone dropped to their knees saying, 'your majesty.'

"Good morning all, please return to your seats." Sophia said smiling walking to her seat with Severus at the front.

Everyone's mouths dropped open as they saw the four behind her they couldn't believe how amazing they looked. Once everyone was settled Sophia spoke up,

"Ok so we are now on year 2 the Chamber of Secrets which is real," she paused allowing everyone to finish their whispered conversations, "Who would like to read?"

"I will." Tracy Davis said and summoned the book to herself. Before she could begin reading a large owl swooped into the hall dropping a large bouquet of flowers on Sophia's lap and held out its leg with a letter attached. Sophia smiled looking at the flowers they were beautiful and also contained her favourites. She carefully took the letter and stroked the owl softly.

"Thank you," she said as she lifted the flowers to smell them, "my favourite," she finished smiling.

Carefully opening the letter she began to read.

_Dear Lady Rosewood,_

_I hope you enjoy the flowers they are my way of saying thank you for the advice you gave me on your last visit. I wish to apologise for my rude behaviour towards you and put it down to my insanity. _

_I have taken your advice and absorbed all my Horcruxes and am feeling much better for it and its all thanks to you. I am now planning to re think my goals for Britain and how I want to achieve them so thank you. _

_Faithfully Yours,_

_LV_

Sophia smiled folding up the letter and placing it inside her robe, "Such a sweetheart," she said.

Harry looked up, "Who's a sweetheart Sophia and who sent the flowers?"

"Oh the Dark Lord," she paused as everyone gasped, "there a thank you for the help I gave him." Severus frowned at the flowers.

Sophia tried to hide her laughter as she heard Draco whisper to Harry, "Did she really just call the Dark Lord a sweetheart?" Harry nodded trying not to laugh.

Sophia pulled out a piece of parchment and quill and started writing a reply.

_Dear Tom, _

_Thank you for the flowers they are beautiful and my favourites. I am glad you have finally regained your sanity and hopefully now you can stop torturing you followers unless they really annoy you. _

_I feel now that you have gained your sanity I can give you some advice for you plans for magical Britain. The most important is stop killing magical people unless there is no other option. There are millions of muggles in this country and only 300,000 magical beings we are outnumbered and our numbers are decreasing with all the deaths and the fact the pureblood idiots only have 1 child and then they only want a boy. There logic is insane you should encourage them to have a minimum of two children. My other concern is your dark mark it is ugly. Nagini is a beautiful snake why not make a mark similar to her introduce some colour and also hide it from sight anyone can have their sleeve lifted and be discoursed. _

_Hopefully this helps and thank you again for the beautiful flowers. _

_Faithfully Yours_

_Lady Sophia Rosewood._

_P.s If you would like to gift me again I would recommend sending the Dursleys (Harry's relatives) all tied up in a nice cage to Hogwarts so they can be tortured. I am not a light witch and I do not pretend to be._

Sophia rolled up the letter and tied it to the same owl's leg. "Please deliver this to the Dark Lord for me."

Turning to the room she smirked as they all stared at her. "Well on with the reading them."

**"The Worst Birthday." **Tracy read.

Harry groaned.

**Not for the first time, an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive.**

"Bloody hell, we have to read about those horrid people again!" Dean said.

Several people began nodding in agreement and sending glances at Harry.

**Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room.**

"**Third time this week!" he roared across the table. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!"**

"What?" Charlie snapped. "He can't do that!"

**Harry tried, yet again, to explain. **"**She's bored," he said. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night -"**

"They locked her up?" Hagrid asked in outrage. Harry nodded his head yes.

"That's animal cruelty!" Lavender shouted.

"How does she hunt?" Charlie demanded.

"**Do I look stupid?"**

"Yes." Fred and George said deadly serious.

**snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.**

"Ew," Lavender squealed.

**"I know what'll happen if that owl's let out."**

"What exactly does he think is going to happen?" Neville asked.

Harry shrugged, "He's just paranoid."

**He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia.**

**Harry tried to argue back but his words were drowned by a long, loud belch from the Dursleys' son, Dudley.**

Most of the hall looked at the book disgusted.

"**I want more bacon."**

"**There's more in the frying pan, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia, turning misty eyes on her massive son. "We must build you up while we've got the chance… I don't like the sound of that school food…"**

Everyone looked at the book in disbelief.

"He's bloody huge!" Fred said.

"He looked like a bloody whale when I saw him," George said.

**"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," said Uncle Vernon heartily. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?"**

**Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry.**

"**Pass the frying pan."**

"**You've forgotten the magic word," said Harry irritably.**

Neville and Draco groaned and sent looks to Harry who shrugged.

**The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible: Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs. Dursley gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples.**

"That whole family is over dramatic," Daphne said.

"Flffy muggles." Draco muttered

"**I meant 'please'!" said Harry quickly. "I didn't mean —"**

"**WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU," thundered his uncle, spraying spit over the table, "ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?"**

Most of the hall burst into laughter.

"The M word?" Fred said in between his fit of laughter.

"**But I —"**

**"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" roared Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his fist.**

"**I just —"**

"**I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!"**

"Abnormality?" The hall shouted.

"You're the abnormal ones!" Theo snapped.

"Muggles." Blaise said in disgust

**Harry stared from his purple-faced uncle to his pale aunt, who was trying to heave Dudley to his feet.**

"**All right," said Harry, "all right…"**

**Uncle Vernon sat back down, breathing like a winded rhinoceros and watching Harry closely out of the corners of his small, sharp eyes.**

Several pairs of eyes were rolled.

**Ever since Harry had come home for the summer holidays, Uncle Vernon had been treating him like a bomb that might go off at any moment, because Harry Potter wasn't a normal boy.**

"Of course you aren't," Fred said.

"You're completely abnormal," George said.

**As a matter of fact, he was as not normal as it is possible to be.**

"Exactly." Fred and George said.

Harry rolled his eyes and Draco and Neville were holding their sides from laughing.

**Harry Potter was a wizard**— **a wizard fresh from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And if the Dursleys were unhappy to have him back for the holidays, it was nothing to how Harry felt.**

Most of the people in the hall sent him sympathetic looks, which he ignored.

**He missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomachache. He missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, his classes (though perhaps not Snape, the Potions master),**

"And here I'd been pinning for you all summer," Severus said smirking

Sophia smiled as Harry started laughing shocked.

**the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall,** **sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory, visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid, in his cabin next to the Forbidden Forest in the grounds,**

Hagrid turned the Harry and smiled fondly at him and Harry smiled back.

**and, especially, Quidditch,**

The students who love quidditch cheered.

**the most popular sport in the wizarding world (six tall goal posts, four flying balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks).**

**All Harry's spell books, his wand, robes, cauldron, and top-of-the-line Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick had been locked in a cupboard under the stairs by Uncle Vernon the instant Harry had come home.**

Glares were sent at the book.

"Better your stuff than you," Neville said.

Harry looked down at the table wondering what their reaction would be when they found out about the bars. Draco frowned watching him.

**What did the Dursleys care if Harry lost his place on the House Quidditch team because he hadn't practiced all summer?**

**Harry looked nothing like the rest of the family.**

"Thank Merlin," Harry muttered.

**Uncle Vernon was large and neckless, with an enormous black mustache; Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blond, pink, and porky.**

"Lovely," Lavender said.

**Harry, on the other hand, was small and skinny, with brilliant green eyes and jet-black hair that was always untidy.**

"James and Lily," Remus said quietly.

Madam Pomfrey kept shooting looks at Harry.

**He wore round glasses, and on his forehead was a thin, lightning-shaped scar.**

**It was this scar that made Harry so particularly unusual, even for a wizard. This scar was the only hint of Harry's very mysterious past,**

Harry glared along with Draco and Neville at the Headmaster.

**of the reason he had been left on the Dursleys' doorstep eleven years before.**

Many glares were sent towards the headmaster.

**At the age of one year old, Harry had somehow survived a curse from the greatest Dark sorcerer of all time,** **Lord Voldemort,** **whose name most witches and wizards still feared to speak. Harry's parents had died in Voldemort's attack, but Harry had escaped with his lightning scar, and somehow — nobody understood why —Voldemort's powers had been destroyed the instant he had failed to kill Harry.**

Harry felt the anger boil inside him as he stared at Dumbledore he wanted to hex the man in to oblivion. Sophia noticed Harry's reaction and summoned his wand. She shook her head at him and mouthed 'later.'

**So Harry had been brought up by his dead mother's sister and her husband. He had spent ten years with the Dursleys, never understanding why he kept making odd things happen without meaning to, believing the Dursleys' story that he had got his scar in the car crash that had killed his parents.**

Glares were sent towards the book.

**And then, exactly a year ago, Hogwarts had written to Harry, and the whole story had come out. Harry had taken up his place at wizard school, where he and his scar were famous…**

"Unfortunately," Harry mumbled.

**but now the school year was over, and he was back with the Dursleys for the summer, back to being treated like a dog that had rolled in something smelly.**

Everyone was glaring at the book.

**The Dursleys hadn't even remembered that today happened to be Harry's twelfth birthday.**

"Don't worry sweetheart this year your birthday will be amazing I promise." Sophia said smiling at him.

Harry beamed back at her, "Thanks."

**Of course, his hopes hadn't been high; they'd never given him a real present, let alone a cake — but to ignore it completely…**

By now most of the hall was looking at Harry sadly.

**At that moment, Uncle Vernon cleared his throat importantly and said, "Now, as we all know, today is a very important day."**

"No way," Dean said. "They actually remembered?"

**Harry looked up, hardly daring to believe it.**

"I don't believe it either," Bill spat.

"**This could well be the day I make the biggest deal of my career," said Uncle Vernon.**

Glares were sent at the book again while several people groaned.

**Harry went back to his toast. Of course, he thought bitterly, Uncle Vernon was talking about the stupid dinner party. He'd been talking of nothing else for two weeks. Some rich builder and his wife were coming to dinner and Uncle Vernon was hoping to get a huge order from him (Uncle Vernon's company made drills).**

"**I think we should run through the schedule one more time," said Uncle Vernon. "We should all be in position at eight o'clock. Petunia, you will be —?"**

"They seriously plan these sorts of things?" Terry asked incredulously.

"Yes," Harry said.

The hall roared with laughter.

"**In the lounge," said Aunt Petunia promptly, "waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."**

"**Good, good. And Dudley?"**

"**I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?"**

"If I saw him I'd run as fast as I could in the opposite direction," Neville said.

Fred and George clapped. "Well said Neville."

"**They'll love him!" cried Aunt Petunia rapturously.**

Several people snorted.

"**Excellent, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon. Then he rounded on Harry. "And you?"**

"**I'll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," said Harry tonelessly.**

Everyone turned to look at him sadly.

Sophia sighed pinching the bridge of her nose.

"**Exactly," said Uncle Vernon nastily. "I will lead them into the lounge, introduce you, Petunia, and pour them drinks. At eight-fifteen —"**

"I wonder how they'd react if their schedule was off?" George asked.

"My uncle would probably have a heart attack," Harry said.

George and Fred exchanged looks, pulled their growing list and began adding to it.

"**I'll announce dinner," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**And, Dudley, you'll say —"**

"**May I take you through to the dining room, Mrs. Mason?" said Dudley, offering his fat arm to an invisible woman.**

"These people are ridiculous," Susan said while Hannah nodded in agreement.

"**My perfect little gentleman!" sniffed Aunt Petunia.**

"I think I'm going to be sick," Lavender groaned

**And you?" said Uncle Vernon viciously to Harry.**

"**I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," said Harry dully.**

"**Precisely. Now, we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?"**

Most of the hall snorted.

"They take being pathetic to a whole new level," Dean said.

"**Vernon tells me you're a wonderful golfer, Mr. Mason… Do tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Mason…"**

"**Perfect… Dudley?"**

"**How about —'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Mason, and I wrote about you.'"**

"These people," McGonagall said shaking her head

**This was too much for both Aunt Petunia and Harry. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and hugged her son, while Harry ducked under the table so they wouldn't see him laughing.**

Harry snorted remembering this.

"**And you, boy?"**

**Harry fought to keep his face straight as he emerged.**

"**I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I'm not there," he said.**

"**Too right, you will." said Uncle Vernon forcefully. "The Masons don't know anything about you and it's going to stay that way. When dinner's over, you take Mrs. Mason back to the lounge for coffee, Petunia, and I'll bring the subject around to drills. With any luck, I'll have the deal signed and sealed before the news at ten. Be shopping for a vacation home in Majorca this time tomorrow."**

**Harry couldn't feel too excited about this. He didn't think the Dursleys would like him any better in Majorca than they did on Privet Drive.**

"I don't know why I even thought that," Harry said shaking his head. "They wouldn't take me anyway."

"**Right — I'm off into town to pick up the dinner jackets for Dudley and me. And you," he snarled at Harry. "You stay out of your aunt's way while she's cleaning."**

**Harry left through the back door. It was a brilliant, sunny day. He crossed the lawn, slumped down on the garden bench, and sang under his breath:**

"**Happy birthday to me… happy birthday to me…"**

Harry turned red at all the pitying looks he was receiving.

"That's so sad," Susan said.

Draco and Neville pulled Harry closer to them and were whispering to him about how this year would be better from now on.

**No cards, no presents, and he would be spending the evening pretending not to exist. He gazed miserably into the hedge. He had never felt so lonely. More than anything else at Hogwarts, more even than playing Quidditch, Harry missed his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.**

Glares were sent at the pair.

**They, however, didn't seem to be missing him at all.**

Many people looked confused.

**Neither of them had written to him all summer, even though Ron had said he was going to ask Harry to come and stay.**

"What?" The majority of the great hall shouted.

Harry sighed he really didn't want to listen to all this.

**Countless times, Harry had been on the point of unlocking Hedwig's cage by magic and sending her to Ron and Hermione with a letter,**

McGonagall shook her head. "That wouldn't be a good idea."

**but it wasn't worth the risk. Underage wizards weren't allowed to use magic outside of school. Harry hadn't told the Dursleys this; he knew it was only their terror that he might turn them all into dung beetles that stopped them from locking him in the cupboard under the stairs with his wand and broomstick.**

More death glares were sent towards the book.

**For the first couple of weeks back, Harry had enjoyed muttering nonsense words under his breath and watching Dudley tearing out of the room as fast as his fat legs would carry him.**

Fred and George snickered.

**But the long silence from Ron and Hermione had made Harry feel so cut off from the magical world that even taunting Dudley had lost its appeal — and now Ron and Hermione had forgotten his birthday.**

**What wouldn't he give now for a message from Hogwarts? From any witch or wizard? He'd almost be glad of a sight of his archenemy, Draco Malfoy, just to be sure it hadn't all been a dream…**

Draco raised an eyebrow.

"Now that's going too far," George said wrinkling his nose.

Harry snorted.

**Not that his whole year at Hogwarts had been fun.**

"You don't consider jumping on a troll fun?" George asked in mock surprise.

"Or almost being eaten by a three headed dog?" Fred asked in the same way.

"Or detention in the forbidden forest?" Lee asked.

"We get it!" Harry said quickly while everyone who heard snickered.

**At the very end of last term, Harry had come face-to-face with none other than Lord Voldemort himself. Voldemort might be a ruin of his former self, but he was still terrifying, still cunning, still determined to regain power. Harry had slipped through Voldemort's clutches for a second time, but it had been a narrow escape, and even now, weeks later, Harry kept waking in the night, drenched in cold sweat, wondering where Voldemort was now, remembering his livid face, his wide, mad eyes —**

"Did nobody suggest counseling or anything of the sort?" Amelia asked.

The teachers exchanged looks.

"We were under the impression he had a loving family who he could talk to," McGonagall said looking ashamed

Amelia raised her eyebrows and made an indistinct noise in her throat. "Maybe next time you should offer some."

**Harry suddenly sat bolt upright on the garden bench. He had been staring absent-mindedly into the hedge — and the hedge was staring back.**

"What?" Dennis asked.

**Two enormous green eyes had appeared among the leaves.**

Many of the people in the hall exchanged looks while Harry snorted.

**Harry jumped to his feet just as a jeering voice floated across the lawn.**

"**I know what day it is," sang Dudley, waddling toward him.**

**The huge eyes blinked and vanished.**

"**What?" said Harry, not taking his eyes off the spot where they had been.**

"**I know what day it is," Dudley repeated, coming right up to him.**

"**Well done," said Harry. "So you've finally learned the days of the week."**

"A huge achievement I'm sure," Dean said.

"**Today's your birthday," sneered Dudley. "How come you haven't got any cards? Haven't you even got friends at that freak place?"**

"Of course he does!" All of Harry's friends shouted causing Harry to blush.

"**Better not let your mum hear you talking about my school," said Harry coolly.**

**Dudley hitched up his trousers, which were slipping down his fat bottom.**

Parvarti and Lavender wrinkled their noses in disgust.

"**Why're you staring at the hedge?" he said suspiciously.**

"**I'm trying to decide what would be the best spell to set it on fire," said Harry.**

The hall broke into laughter.

**Dudley stumbled backward at once, a look of panic on his fat face.** "**You c-can't — Dad told you you're not to do m-magic —**

"Ooohh he said the M word," Fred said laughing.

"Better not let mummy and daddy hear you," George added.

**he said he'll chuck you out of the house — and you haven't got anywhere else to go — you haven't got any friends to take you —"**

"He does too." Draco, Neville and the Weasley's said.

**"Jiggery pokery!" said Harry in a fierce voice. "Hocus pocus — squiggly wiggly —"**

The room burst out laughing, Harry noticed even Severus was smiling while Sophia was outright clutching her sides laughing.

"**MUUUUUUM!" howled Dudley, tripping over his feet as he dashed back toward the house. "MUUUUM! He's doing you know what!"**

Fred and George snorted.

**Harry paid dearly for his moment of fun.**

Many people narrowed their eyes.

**As neither Dudley nor the hedge was in any way hurt, Aunt Petunia knew he hadn't really done magic, but he still had to duck as she aimed a heavy blow at his head with the soapy frying pan.**

Remus' eyes flashed amber as he glared at the book.

"She did what?" The female teachers shouted.

"Were you ok?" Neville asked worriedly.

"I was fine," Harry said quietly. "She missed."

Draco sighed and pulled Harry closer wrapping his arms around him he could believe how fragile Harry was.

**Then she gave him work to do, with the promise he wouldn't eat again until he'd finished.**

More death glares were sent to the book.

"It's ok," Harry said, "I don't have to go back ever again.

"Nope you don't." Draco said smiling

**While Dudley lolled around watching and eating ice cream, Harry cleaned the windows, washed the car, mowed the lawn, trimmed the flower beds, pruned and watered the roses, and repainted the garden bench.**

"That's way too much work for a twelve year old!" Pomfrey said. "Especially if you haven't eaten all day."

"I'm used to it," Harry shrugged.

"Well you won't be doing any chores when we live at the palace we have house elf's." Sophia said.

**The sun blazed overhead, burning the back of his neck. Harry knew he shouldn't have risen to Dudley's bait, but Dudley had said the very thing Harry had been thinking himself… maybe he didn't have any friends at Hogwarts…**

Several people in the hall who turned on Harry paled hearing this.

**Wish they could see famous Harry Potter now, he thought savagely as he spread manure on the flower beds, his back aching, sweat running down his face.**

**It was half past seven in the evening when at last, exhausted, he heard Aunt Petunia calling him.**

"**Get in here! And walk on the newspaper!"**

"He's not a dog," Neville scowled and Snuffles began growling.

**Harry moved gladly into the shade of the gleaming kitchen. On top of the fridge stood tonight's pudding: a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets.**

"I really hate that pudding," Harry muttered.

**A loin of roast pork was sizzling in the oven.**

**"Eat quickly! The Masons will be here soon!" snapped Aunt Petunia, pointing to two slices of bread and a lump of cheese on the kitchen table.**

"No wonder you're so thin," Pomfrey said. "You will be coming for a full work up once this is all over Mr. Potter."

Harry groaned. "Do I have to?"

"That won't be necessary Madam Pomfrey, Harry will be seeing a full team of Goblin hears before we leave for the Island." Sophia said

Harry paled hearing this. Sophia chuckled "Don't worry its much quicker and you are asleep while it happens."

"Oh ok that doesn't sound too bad then." Harry said while Madam Pomfrey frowned hearing this,

**She was already wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress.**

**Harry washed his hands and bolted down his pitiful supper. The moment he had finished, Aunt Petunia whisked away his plate. "Upstairs! Hurry!"**

**As he passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in bow ties and dinner jackets. He had only just reached the upstairs landing when the door bell rang and Uncle Vernon's furious face appeared at the foot of the stairs.**

"**Remember, boy — one sound —"**

**Harry crossed to his bedroom on tiptoe slipped inside, closed the door, and turned to collapse on his bed. The trouble was, there was already someone sitting on it.**

"What?" Many people asked.

Harry just smiled at them secretively.

"That's the end of the chapter." Tracy said frowning.

**A/N** – Coming up will Voldy send Sophia the Dursleys in a pretty box? Will he attempt to court her? Will anything happen with Sophia and Severus and will Harry and Draco become a couple as the story continues. Well you will just have to wait and see haha.


	15. Chapter 15

A/N – Brand new chapter. Thank you so much to everyone has took the time to read this story and I am glad that you are enjoying it. If you have any suggestions or improvements please feel free to send them my way. Again thank you all, you have brought a smile to my face.

Disclaimer - I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR HIS WORLD. IT ALL BELONGS TO THE AMAZING JK ROWLING WHO HAS GIVEN US ALL AN OPPORTUNTIY TO EXPLORE THIS EXCITING WORLD.

Sophia summoned the book towards her and waved it in the air, "who would like to read next then?"

Before anyone got a chance to speak up, little Dennis Creevey had jumped up from his seat and ran towards the front and skidded before falling and landing at Sophia's feet. She burst out laughing soon followed by the rest of the hall. Leaning forward she gently helped him sit on the huge pillow in front of her and gave him the book.

"Here you go swesetie. I guess you can read." Sophia smiled sweetly at him.

"Thank you Mi'lady." He said quietly still bright red in embarrassment.

"**Dobby's Warning" **

"Who's Dobby?" Several people could be heard asking.

A pop was heard and Dobby the house elf popped in next to Harry wearing a black outfit. Harry's eyes rose and looked between him and Sophia who nodded sadly.

"NO" Harry screamed and hugged Dobby, tears streaming down his face. "Dobby you can't die your my friend, you saved my life more the once. I won't let you die."

Dobby stood frozen, he had never been hugged by a wizard before and the Great Harry Potter was hugging Dobby. He called Dobby friend. Dobby almost passed out from the shock.

Harry looked up at Sophia his eyes begging her to save dobby. Sophia sighed and looked up at the ceiling closing her eyes. She opened them and they were glowing white.

_"Harry Potter you heart is pure and we grant you this one request. Dobby died saving you in Malfoy Manor. He scarified his life for his friend; do not let that sacrifice be in vain. Love him and take of him. Take the house elf bond and protect Dobby as a member of House Potter. In time we will call upon you to request a favour in return for this gift."_ Fate spoke clearly. Harry nodded to shocked to speak.

Sophia blinked at fell back against Severus feeling completely drained.

"Sophia, Are you ok?" Severus asked brushing the hair out of his face. He looked at her worry clearly on his face. Sophia placed a hand over his.

"I'm thank you for your concern." She whispered smiling at him. She felt her strength returning. Turning she sort out Harry.

He looked at her eyes wide open in fear, "I guess you spoke to my mother Harry." Sophia said watching him. Harry nodded still unable to speak.

"To bond with Dobby you simply place your hand on his and accept him into the family." Sophia said.

Dobby was bouncing happily in front of Harry. They grasped hands and Harry took a deep breath before speaking, "I Harry James Potter the last surviving member of house Potter. Do here by take Dobby the house elf into my family for being a honoured and faithful friend."Harry knew what he had to say he pushed the love he had for Dobby through their growing bond.

Dobby felt the love through the bond and shivered. "I Dobby here by accept Harry James Potter as my truest friend and Lord. Dobby swears to always protect him."

With a flash of light both collapsed on the floor from the power they just exchanged.

Sophia smiled and watched their friends comfort them and motioned Dennis to continue.

"**Harry managed not to shout out, but it was a close thing. The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls."**

"**Harry knew instantly that this was what had been watching him out of the garden hedge that morning.**

**As they stared at each other, Harry heard Dudley's voice from the hall.**

'**May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Mason?'"**.

"Of course Duddykins." Fred shouted in his impression of a posh person.

"Make sure you wash your hands before you touch my coat. Dear" George said.

The hall chuckled listening to them. It certainly lighted the mood.

"**The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the end of its long, thin nose touched the carpet. Harry noticed that it was wearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm- and leg-holes."**

"'**Er — hello,' said Harry nervously.**

'**Harry Potter!' said the creature in a high-pitched voice Harry was sure would carry down the stairs. 'So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, sir… Such an honor it is…'**

'**Th-thank you,' said Harry, edging along the wall and sinking into his desk chair, next to Hedwig, who was asleep in her large cage. He wanted to ask, 'What are you?' but thought it would sound too rude, so instead he said, 'Who are you?'"**

"'**Dobby, sir. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf,' said the creature.**

"Please to meet you Dobby." All of Harry's friends shouted. Dobby blushed and hid behind Harry.

'**Oh — really?' said Harry. 'Er — I don't want to be rude or anything, but — this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom.'**

**Aunt Petunias high, false laugh sounded from the living room. The elf hung his head.**

'**Not that I'm not pleased to meet you,' said Harry quickly, 'but, er, is there any particular reason you're here?'**

"aww" the female population cooed.

'**Oh, yes, sir,' said Dobby earnestly. 'Dobby has come to tell you, sir… it is difficult, sir… Dobby wonders where to begin…'**

'**Sit down,' said Harry politely, pointing at the bed."**

Bill shook his head sadly at this. He knew there would be problems now. House elves weren't used to being treated as equals.

"**To his horror, the elf burst into tears — very noisy tears."**

"'**S-sit down!' he wailed. 'Never… never ever…'**

**Harry thought he heard the voices downstairs falter.**

'**I'm sorry,' he whispered, 'I didn't mean to offend you or anything —'**

'**Offend Dobby!' choked the elf. 'Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard — like an equal —'"**

"**Harry, trying to say 'Shh!' and look comforting at the same time, ushered Dobby back onto the bed where he sat hiccoughing, looking like a large and very ugly doll."**

"**At last he managed to control himself, and sat with his great eyes fixed on Harry in an expression of watery adoration."**

"'**You can't have met many decent wizards,' said Harry, trying to cheer him up.**

Several of the adults began shaking their heads at this.

**Dobby shook his head. Then, without warning, he leapt up and started banging his head furiously on the window, shouting, 'Bad Dobby! Bad Dobby!'"**

The students were so engrossed in the story that they were shouting at the book. "ssshhhhh"

Dobby blushed furiously while Harry chuckled.

"'**Don't — what are you doing?' Harry hissed, springing up and pulling Dobby back onto the bed — Hedwig had woken up with a particularly loud screech and was beating her wings wildly against the bars of her cage.**

'**Dobby had to punish himself, sir,' said the elf, who had gone slightly cross-eyed. 'Dobby almost spoke ill of his family, sir…'**

'**Your family?'**

'**The wizard family Dobby serves, sir… Dobby is a house-elf — bound to serve one house and one family forever…'**

'**Do they know you're here?' asked Harry curiously.**

**Dobby shuddered.**

'**Oh, no, sir, no… Dobby will have to punish himself most grievously for coming to see you, sir. Dobby will have to shut his ears in the oven door for this. If they ever knew, sir —'"**

Draco looked down looking uncomfortable. Harry squeezed his hand softly and offered him a reassuring smile.

Lucius & Narcissa were currently having a glaring match with one another.

"'**But won't they notice if you shut your ears in the oven door?'**

'**Dobby doubts it, sir. Dobby is always having to punish himself for something, sir. They lets Dobby get on with it, sir. Sometimes they reminds me to do extra punishments…'"**

"'**But why don't you leave? Escape?'**

'**A house-elf must be set free, sir. And the family will never set Dobby free… Dobby will serve the family until he dies, sir…'**

Many of the first years sat silently crying at this while the older ones comforted them. The purebloods in the room didn't see what the problem was. They were house elves.

**Harry stared.**

'**And I thought I had it bad staying here for another four weeks,' he said. 'This makes the Dursleys sound almost human. Can't anyone help you? Can't I?'"**

"**Almost at once, Harry wished he hadn't spoken. Dobby dissolved again into wails of gratitude.**

'**Please,' Harry whispered frantically, 'please be quiet. If the Dursleys hear anything, if they know you're here —'**

Sophia hissed glaring at the book.

'**Harry Potter asks if he can help Dobby… Dobby has heard of your greatness, sir, but of your goodness, Dobby never knew…'"**

"**Harry, who was feeling distinctly hot in the face, said, 'Whatever you've heard about my greatness is a load of rubbish. I'm not even top of my year at Hogwarts; that's Hermione, she —'"**

Heads turned as one and glared at her.

"**But he stopped quickly, because thinking about Hermione was painful."**

"'**Harry Potter is humble and modest,' said Dobby reverently, his orb-like eyes aglow. 'Harry Potter speaks not of his triumph over He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named —'**

'**Voldemort?' said Harry."**

Little Dennis shuddered as he ready this line.

"**Dobby clapped his hands over his bat ears and moaned, 'Ah, speak not the name, sir! Speak not the name!'"**

"'**Sorry,' said Harry quickly. 'I know lots of people don't like it. My friend Ron —'**

More glares were sent at the red headed weasel.

**He stopped again. Thinking about Ron was painful, too."**

Harry sighed sadly, how could they do this to him. They were his first friends. Seeing how sad Harry was Luna, Draco and Neville pulled him into a group hug with the Weasley twins jumping in to the mix.

Sophia chuckled quietly, smiling watching them. She was glad Harry had trustworthy people in his life.

"**Dobby leaned toward Harry, his eyes wide as headlights.**

'**Dobby heard tell,' he said hoarsely, 'that Harry Potter met the Dark Lord for a second time just weeks ago… that Harry Potter escaped yet again.'"**

"**Harry nodded and Dobby's eyes suddenly shone with tears.**

'**Ah, sir,' he gasped, dabbing his face with a corner of the grubby pillowcase he was wearing. 'Harry Potter is valiant and bold! He has braved so many dangers already!"**

"**But Dobby has come to protect Harry Potter, to warn him, even if he does have to shut his ears in the oven door later…"**

"**Harry Potter must not go back to Hogwarts.'"**

"Harry Potter not attending Hogwarts... the horror!" Fred screamed clutching his heart.

"**There was a silence broken only by the chink of knives and forks from downstairs and the distant rumble of Uncle Vernon's voice.**

'**W-what?' Harry stammered. 'But I've got to go back — term starts on September first. It's all that's keeping me going."**

"**You don't know what it's like here. I don't belong here."**

"**I belong in your world — at Hogwarts.'**

Several people looked at him sadly they knew how it felt to be unwanted and unloved. Hogwarts truly was many people's homes.

'**No, no, no,' squeaked Dobby, shaking his head so hard his ears flapped. 'Harry Potter must stay where he is safe. He is too great, too good, to lose. If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger.'"**

"'**Why?' said Harry in surprise.**

'**There is a plot, Harry Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year,' whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over."**

"'**Dobby has known it for months, sir. Harry Potter must not put himself in peril. He is too important, sir!'"**

The lower years who weren't at school during this time started to look worried while the older ones blanched remembering the horrors of that year.

"'**What terrible things?' said Harry at once. 'Who's plotting them?'"**

"**Dobby made a funny choking noise and then banged his head frantically against the wall."**

"'**All right!' cried Harry, grabbing the elf's arm to stop him. 'You can't tell me. I understand. But why are you warning me?'"**

"**A sudden, unpleasant thought struck him. 'Hang on — this hasn't got anything to do with Vol — sorry — with You-Know-Who, has it?"**

Shivers went through the room. Harry sighed rubbing his temples. '_Sheep the lot of them'_ he thought.

"**You could just shake or nod,' he added hastily as Dobby's head tilted worryingly close to the wall again.**

**Slowly, Dobby shook his head."**

"'**Not — not He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, sir —'**

**But Dobby's eyes were wide and he seemed to be trying to give Harry a hint."**

"**Harry, however, was completely lost.**

'**He hasn't got a brother, has he?'"**

"The horror... he who must not be related." Fred shouted.

"Wonder if he would be snake like to." George said laughing**. **

"**Dobby shook his head, his eyes wider than ever.**

'**Well then, I can't think who else would have a chance of making horrible things happen at Hogwarts,' said Harry."**

"'**I mean, there's Dumbledore, for one thing — you know who Dumbledore is, don't you?'**

Growls echoed round the room following this. Bill had to pin Remus to the chair when his eyes flashed yellow. "Must protect cub"

**Dobby bowed his head.**

'**Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had."**

"I take that back! Dumblebutt is a bad wizard yes he is." Dobby said, standing with his hands on his hips.

The hall burst out laughing nodding along with him.

"**Dobby knows it, sir. Dobby has heard Dumbledore's powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at the height of his strength."**.

"**But, sir' — Dobby's voice dropped to an urgent whisper — 'there are powers Dumbledore doesn't… powers no decent wizard…'"**

Several people coughed hearing this while others laughed.

"**And before Harry could stop him, Dobby bounded off the bed, seized Harry's desk lamp, and started beating himself around the head with earsplitting yelps."**

"**A sudden silence fell downstairs. Two seconds later Harry, heart thudding madly, heard Uncle Vernon coming into the hall, calling, 'Dudley must have left his television on again, the little tyke!'"**

"'**Quick! In the closet!' hissed Harry, stuffing Dobby in, shutting the door, and flinging himself onto the bed just as the door handle turned."**

"'**What — the —devil — are — you — doing?' said Uncle Vernon through gritted teeth, his face horribly close to Harry's. 'You've just ruined the punch line of my Japanese golfer joke…"**

"bbboooooo" started around the room when Vernon the whale was mentioned.

"**One more sound and you'll wish you'd never been born, boy!'"**

Sophia growled, "When I get my hands on you, you filthy muggle you will beg for me to kill you when I'm through." She hissed so low only Severus heard her. He squeezed her hand pulling her closer. He didn't know what made him do it. "They will pay for their crimes." He said with such venom it made her shiver in pleasure.

"**He stomped flat-footed from the room.**

**Shaking, Harry let Dobby out of the closet.**

'**See what it's like here?' he said. 'See why I've got to go back to Hogwarts? It's the only place I've got — well, I think I've got friends.'"**

"'**Friends who don't even write to Harry Potter?' said Dobby slyly.**

"Some friends they are." Harry growled.

"Don't worry Harry they will pay everyone in this room will make sure of that." Draco said

Even Umbridge was nodding along with the students glaring at the betrayers she couldn't wait to break out her special quill.

'**I expect they've just been — wait a minute,' said Harry, frowning. 'How do you know my friends haven't been writing to me?'**

**Dobby shuffled his feet."**

"'**Harry Potter mustn't be angry with Dobby. Dobby did it for the best —'**

Harry smiled at Dobby.

'**Have you been stopping my letters?'**

'**Dobby has them here, sir,' said the elf. Stepping nimbly out of Harry's reach, he pulled a thick wad of envelopes from the inside of the pillowcase he was wearing. Harry could make out Hermione's neat writing, Ron's untidy scrawl, and even a scribble that looked as though it was from the Hogwarts gamekeeper, Hagrid."**

"**Dobby blinked anxiously up at Harry.**

'**Harry Potter mustn't be angry… Dobby hoped… if Harry Potter thought his friends had forgotten him… Harry Potter might not want to go back to school, sir…'"**

"**Harry wasn't listening. He made a grab for the letters, but Dobby jumped out of reach.**

'**Harry Potter will have them, sir, if he gives Dobby his word that he will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, sir!'"**.

"'**No,' said Harry angrily. 'Give me my friends' letters!'**

"Run... Run... Run for your lives." George shouted hiding behind a pillow.

"It's the Potter temper." Fred shivered along with several others who had seen it.

'**Then Harry Potter leaves Dobby no choice,' said the elf sadly.**

**Before Harry could move, Dobby had darted to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and sprinted down the stairs.**

**Mouth dry, stomach lurching, Harry sprang after him, trying not to make a sound. He jumped the last six steps, landing catlike on the hall carpet, looking around for Dobby."**

Several people were sat nervously waiting to see what happened.

"**From the dining room he heard Uncle Vernon saying, '… tell Petunia that very funny story about those American plumbers, Mr. Mason. She's been dying to hear…'**

**Harry ran up the hall into the kitchen and felt his stomach disappear.**

**Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, was floating up near the ceiling."**

"**On top of a cupboard in the corner crouched Dobby.**

'**No,' croaked Harry. 'Please… they'll kill me…'**

The adults in the room blanched at this. While Sophia gripped onto Severus she knew the likelihood of this happening. She had seen it.

'**Harry Potter must say he's not going back to school —'**

'**Dobby… please…'**

'**Say it, sir —'**

'**I can't —'**

**Dobby gave him a tragic look.**

'**Then Dobby must do it, sir, for Harry Potter's own good.'**

Dobby sat cry he felt so guilty for getting his master in trouble. Harry just hugged him and smiled.

**The pudding fell to the floor with a heart-stopping crash. Cream splattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered. With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanished.**

**There were screams from the dining room and Uncle Vernon burst into the kitchen to find Harry, rigid with shock, covered from head to foot in Aunt Petunia's pudding."**

Several people chuckled before they thought of the after affects.

"**At first, it looked as though Uncle Vernon would manage to gloss the whole thing over. ('Just our nephew —very disturbed — meeting strangers upsets him, so we kept him upstairs…')"**

"**He shooed the shocked Masons back into the dining room, promised Harry he would flay him to within an inch of his life when the Masons had left, and handed him a mop. Aunt Petunia dug some ice cream out of the freezer and Harry, still shaking, started scrubbing the kitchen clean."**

"**Uncle Vernon might still have been able to make his deal — if it hadn't been for the owl."**.

"**Aunt Petunia was just passing around a box of after-dinner mints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining room window, dropped a letter on Mrs. Mason's head, and swooped out again. Mrs. Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the house shouting about lunatics. Mr. Mason stayed just long enough to tell the Dursleys that his wife was mortally afraid of birds of all shapes and sizes, and to ask whether this was their idea of a joke."**

"**Harry stood in the kitchen, clutching the mop for support, as Uncle Vernon advanced on him, a demonic glint in his tiny eyes.**

'**Read it!' he hissed evilly, brandishing the letter the owl had delivered. 'Go on — read it!'"**

"**Harry took it. It did not contain birthday greetings.**

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine.**

**As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school. (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C).**

**We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non magical community (Muggles) is a serious offense under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy.**

**Enjoy your holidays!**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Mafalda Hopkirk**

**IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE**

**Ministry of Magic"**

"**Harry looked up from the letter and gulped.**

"Enjoy your holidays" The students screamed at the ministry people.

Madam Bones added a note to a growing list of changes that would need to be made. That's if she survived the war of course.

'**You didn't tell us you weren't allowed to use magic outside school,' said Uncle Vernon, a mad gleam dancing in his eyes. 'Forgot to mention it… Slipped your mind, I daresay…'**

**He was bearing down on Harry like a great bulldog, all his teeth bared. 'Well, I've got news for you, boy… I'm locking you up… You're never going back to that school… never… and if you try and magic yourself out — they'll expel you!'"**

"**And laughing like a maniac, he dragged Harry back upstairs."**

"Get your hands of my cub you filthy muggle." Remus growled gripping the table trying to calm down.

"**Uncle Vernon was as bad as his word. The following morning, he paid a man to fit bars on Harry's window."**

"Bars on your windows." Harry's friends screamed while he ducked his head.

"**He himself fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day."**

"**They let Harry out to use the bathroom morning and evening. Otherwise, he was locked in his room around the clock."**

"**Three days later, the Dursleys were showing no sign of relenting, and Harry couldn't see any way out of his situation. He lay on his bed watching the sun sinking behind the bars on the window and wondered miserably what was going to happen to him.**

"Three days! Three days! How dare they." Bill said fuming while Charlie nodded in agreement.

**What was the good of magicking himself out of his room if Hogwarts would expel him for doing it?"**

"**Yet life at Privet Drive had reached an all-time low. Now that the Dursleys knew they weren't going to wake up as fruit bats, he had lost his only weapon. Dobby might have saved Harry from horrible happenings at Hogwarts, but the way things were going, he'd probably starve to death anyway."**

"**The cat-flap rattled and Aunt Petunias hand appeared, pushing a bowl of canned soup into the room. Harry, whose insides were aching with hunger, jumped off his bed and seized it. The soup was stone-cold, but he drank half of it in one gulp."**

"**Then he crossed the room to Hedwig's cage and tipped the soggy vegetables at the bottom of the bowl into her empty food tray."**

"Aawww" the girls in the room coooed and Harry blushed furiously.

"**She ruffled her feathers and gave him a look of deep disgust."**

"'**It's no good turning your beak up at it — that's all we've got,' said Harry grimly.**

**He put the empty bowl back on the floor next to the cat-flap and lay back down on the bed, somehow even hungrier than he had been before the soup."**

"**Supposing he was still alive in another four weeks, what would happen if he didn't turn up at Hogwarts?"**

"**Would someone be sent to see why he hadn't come back?"**

"**Would they be able to make the Dursleys let him go?"**

"**The room was growing dark. Exhausted, stomach rumbling, mind spinning over the same unanswerable questions, Harry fell into an uneasy sleep.**

**He dreamed that he was on show in a zoo, with a card reading UNDERAGE WIZARD attached to his cage. People goggled through the bars at him as he lay, starving and weak, on a bed of straw. He saw Dobby's face in the crowd and shouted out, asking for help, but Dobby called, 'Harry Potter is safe there, sir!' and vanished. Then the Dursleys appeared and Dudley rattled the bars of the cage, laughing at him."**

"'**Stop it,' Harry muttered as the rattling pounded in his sore head. 'Leave me alone… cut it out… I'm trying to sleep…'**

**He opened his eyes. Moonlight was shining through the bars on the window. And someone was goggling through the bars at him: a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed someone.**

**Ron Weasley was outside Harry's window."**

The hall immediately started booing him as Sophia chuckled quietly. Severus smirked hearing this.

"That's the end of the chapter." Dennis said bouncing excitedly and handed the book back to Sophia before running off back to his brother..

Sophia looked up at precisely that moment and smiled as a beautiful black eagle flew towards her. Severus turned towards Sophia to speak and frowned at where she was looking. The whole hall now drew quiet waiting to see if this was another let from the infamous Dark Lord.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N So my wonderful reader here is a new chapter. Hope that you enjoy sorry in advance for mistakes I have tried to check but my speling and grammer suck!

DISCLAIMER – I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER AND NEVER WILL ALL BELONGS TO JK ROWLING THIS IS JUST FOR FUN.

The black eagle gracefully flew straight to Sophia and dropped a letter and a black box on to her lap, before taking off into the sky again.

Sophia carefully opened the letter first aware that every eye was on here. First she notices the drawing clearly it was the new dark mark. It was beautiful the scales of the snake were now black with flecks of gold and silver. The eyes were avada kavada green and when it moved on the page she felt a shiver go down her spine. She passed the drawing to Severus and heard him gasp. She turned her attention back to the letter.

_Dear Sophia, _

_Thank you for replying to my letter, I agree whole heartedly with your judgement of the mark and have created a new one enclosed. I await your approval of this. _

_I am afraid it may take me awhile to send you the Dursleys wrapped in a bow but I promise that you will have them. However I have enclosed a gift to show my appreciation and admiration for yourself. I saw it and it reminded me of your beauty._ Here Sophia paused and blush brightly causing everyone to look at her weirdly. She opened the black box and gasped inside was a beautiful golden locket with her initials carved into it, small diamonds and etchings moved around it. Smiling she cast a detection spell before placing it on, and resumed reading.

_I am starting to look over my goals in life at the moment and I am coming to the realisation that I never wanted to rule. I just want to teach that was always my passion. However I saw that the magical world needed to change and wanted my ideas to be heard. Thus began my decent in to madness spurned on by one Albus Dumbledore. I am unsure why I am telling you this but I have this strange desire to please you. _

_Anyway I have followers to reign in. I hope you enjoy my gift and any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated. _

_Faithfully yours, _

_Tom Riddle_

Sophia sighed finishing the letter; she folded it back up and vanished it back to her house. She closed her eyes and started to think. What should she do about him, could he be trusted with another chance? Sighing again she decided to answer him at the end of the chapter everyone could use some fresh air and it would give her chance to think. Breaking out of her thoughts she looked at everyone staring at her and blushed slightly. Coughing to clear her throat, "So who would like to read next?" her voice carried softly across the hall giving everyone a feeling of safety and warmth. However the betrayers felt nothing but bitter hatred.

"I would like to read if you don't mind." Severus said. He needed something to distract him from his current train of thoughts. He was starting to fall for Sophia and that terrified him. He could also feel anger rise in himself when he thought of the letters she was writing to the Dark Lord.

"Of course" Sophia said flashing her most dazzling smile. She glowed inside when she heard him freeze.

Severus tried to compose himself before starting to read. Harry, Draco and Neville were watching the pair closely and frowned. "So who wants to bet when they will become a pair?" Draco asked starting to smirk. Harry punched him playfully, "Hey that's my new mum." His smile was so huge they both hugged him. "Plus the Dark Lord seems to like Sophia I think the professor has competition." Neville said bursting out laughing at the look of horror on Harry's face. Harry turned to Sophia, he got up from his place next to Draco, Neville and Luna and walked over to her his face blank trying to contain him emotions.

"Harry is everything ok?" She looked at him in concern.

"Sophia mmm areyouandthedarklordgoingtos tartdateing?" Harry rushed out not pausing to catch his breath. Sophia frowned at him and pulled him into a hug. Kissing his forehead softly she looked into his eyes before speaking.

"Sweetheart I promise to never date someone who you did not approve of. You are my number one priority now I've always wanted a child sweetheart and I love you already never forget that." She hugged him again and smiled feeling him relax against her. "Now go sit with your friends and enjoy yourself you deserve it." She smiled and watched him walk off happily.

Severus felt his heart breaking slightly he was awful to Potter he would have to think of a way to get him to like him. Shaking his head he began to read.

"**Chapter 3: At Flourish and Blotts**."

"A bookstore?" Tonks said incredulously. "What's happens in a bookstore that's so important that we have to read a chapter about it?"

"Oh, I know what this is about," Arthur said as a smug smile appeared on his face. This was where he slugged Malfoy… something he had been dying to do since he meet the man.

"Well," Tonks said, as she noticed his grin. "If you're smiling like that then it must be good."

Sophia quickly spoke up, "Sorry we have skipped Harry spending time at the Weasley's but nothing important I don't think. Carry on."

**Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on Privet Drive. **

"Well," Remus stated firmly, "That does happen when you meet people who actually care about what happens to you." "Well most of them" he muttered as an after thought.

**The Dursleys liked everything neat and ordered; the Weasleys' house burst with the strange and unexpected. Harry got a shock the first time he looked in the mirror over the kitchen mantelpiece and it shouted, "Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!" The ghoul in the attic howled and dropped pipes whenever he felt things were getting too quiet, and small explosions from Fred and George's bedroom were considered perfectly normal. **

**What Harry found most unusual about life at Ron's, however, wasn't the talking mirror or the clanking ghoul: It was the fact that everybody there seemed to like him.**

They all frowned at that, Tonks out of sadness that Harry had to grow up in such a unloved environment, Remus out of guilt for not doing anything, Minerva out of anger at the Dursley's, Severus at the reminder that Potter didn't have as perfect a life as he had imagined him to have, Sophia because she was trying to think of ways to fix his horrible childhood.

**Mrs. Weasley fussed over the state of his socks and tried to force him to eat fourth helpings at every meal. Mr. Weasley liked Harry to sit next to him at the dinner table so that he could bombard him with questions about life with Muggles, asking him to explain how things like plugs and the postal service worked.**

That line cheered them all up greatly.

Several students chuckled at this. Arthur merely chuckled along with them.

**"Fascinating." he would say as Harry talked him through using a telephone. "Ingenious, really, how many ways Muggles have found of getting along without magic."**

**Harry heard from Hogwarts one sunny morning about a week after he had arrived at the Burrow. He and Ron went down to breakfast to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny already sitting at the kitchen table. The moment she saw Harry, Ginny accidentally knocked her porridge bowl to the floor with a loud clatter. Ginny seemed very prone to knocking things over whenever Harry entered a room. She dived under the table to retrieve the bowl and emerged with her face glowing like the setting sun. **

"You know?" Minerva said lightly to no one in particular, "For someone with supposedly terrible eyesight, he sure can see things very well."

**Pretending he hadn't noticed this, Harry sat down and took the toast Mrs. Weasley offered him.**

The girls in the room cooed at how polite he was.

**"Letters from school," said Mr. Weasley, passing Harry and Ron identical envelopes of yellowish parchment, addressed in green ink. "Dumbledore already knows you're here, Harry — doesn't miss a trick, that man.**

**You two've got them, too," he added, as Fred and George ambled in, still in their pajamas.**

**For a few minutes there was silence as they all read their letters. Harry's told him to catch the Hogwarts Express as usual from King's Cross station on September first. There was also a list of the new books he'd need for the coming year.**

_**SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:**_

_**The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2by Miranda Goshawk**_

_**Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

_**Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

_**Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

_**43 Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

_**Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

_**Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

_**Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart**_

The students groaned remember all those books.

"He wrote almost the whole booklist," Remus said thoughtfully

"Yes," Minerva said. "Our _teacher_," she said that word as if it was a bad taste in her mouth, "For that year requested them all."

**Fred, who had finished his own list, peered over at Harry's.**

**"You've been told to get all Lockhart's books, too!" he said. "The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher must be a fan — bet it's a witch."**

"I wish," Minerva grunted.

"It would've been a lot less annoying," Severus agreed.

**At this point, Fred caught his mother's eye and quickly busied himself with the marmalade.**

**"That lot won't come cheap," said George, with a quick look at his parents. "Lockhart's books are really expensive…"**

"He wasn't kidding," Arthur muttered along with Amelia and surprisingly Lucius.

**"Well, we'll manage," said Mrs. Weasley, but she looked worried. "I expect we'll be able to pick up a lot of Ginny's things secondhand."**

**"Oh, are you starting at Hogwarts this year?" Harry asked Ginny.**

**She nodded, blushing to the roots of her flaming hair, and put her elbow in the butter dish. **

Harry looked up at the ceiling and just glared he hated fan girls.

**Fortunately no one saw this except Harry, because just then Ron's elder brother Percy walked in. He was already dressed, his Hogwarts prefect badge pinned to his sweater vest.**

**"Morning, all," said Percy briskly. "Lovely day."**

**He sat down in the only remaining chair but leapt up again almost immediately, pulling from underneath him a molting, gray feather duster — at least, that was what Harry thought it was, until he saw that it was breathing.**

"You have a breathing feather duster?" Tonks asked them baffled.

"I don't think that's a feather duster," Remus smiled. The Weasley's started laughing.

**"Errol!" said Ron, taking the limp owl from Percy and extracting a letter from under its wing. "Finally— he's got Hermione's answer. I wrote to her saying we were going to try and rescue you from the Dursleys."**

**He carried Errol to a perch just inside the back door and tried to stand him on it, but Errol flopped straight off again so Ron lay him on the draining board instead, muttering, "Pathetic." **

**Then he ripped open Hermione's letter and read it out loud:**

_**Dear Ron, and Harry if you're there,**_

_**I hope everything went all right and that Harry is okay and that you didn't do anything illegal to get him out, Ron, because that would get Harry into trouble, too. **_

"Well, too late for that," Remus said conversationally.

The students snickered as Arthur blushed.

_**I've been really worried and if Harry is all right, will you please let me know at once, but perhaps it would be better if you used a different owl because I think another delivery might finish your one off.**_

_**I'm very busy with schoolwork, of course'— **_

"But it's summer!" Fred and George shouted as one. "You aren't supposed to work during the summer holidays! Why else would they call it a vacation?"

**How can she be?" said Ron in horror. "We're on vacation! **

—_**'and we're going to London next Wednesday to buy my new books. Why don't we meet in Diagon Alley? Let me know what's happening as soon as you can. **_

_**Love from Hermione.'**_

"So this is why you're going to Diagon Alley," Remus stated with another glance at Arthur, "But this doesn't explain what's so important about Flourish and Blotts."

No one bothered to answer him so Severus continued to read.

**"Well, that fits in nicely, we can go and get all your things then, too," said Mrs. Weasley, starting to clear the table. "What're you all up to today?"**

**Harry, Ron, Fred, and George were planning to go up the hill to a small paddock the Weasleys owned. It was surrounded by trees that blocked it from view of the village below, meaning that they could practice Quidditch there, as long as they didn't fly too high.**

**They couldn't use real Quidditch balls, which would have been hard to explain if they had escaped and flown away over the village; **

**instead they threw apples for one another to catch. They took turns riding Harry's Nimbus Two Thousand, which was easily the best broom; Ron's old Shooting Star was often outstripped by passing butterflies.**

**Five minutes later they were marching up the hill, broomsticks over their shoulders. They had asked Percy if he wanted to join them, but he had said he was busy. **

**Harry had only seen Percy at mealtimes so far; he stayed shut in his room the rest of the time.**

**"Wish I knew what he was up to," said Fred, frowning. "He's not himself. His exam results came the day before you did; twelve O.W.L.s and he hardly gloated at all."**

"I always did wonder what he was up to that summer," Arthur said thoughtfully. Severus quickly began reading before anyone else interrupted.

**"Ordinary Wizarding Levels," George explained, seeing Harry's puzzled look. "Bill got twelve, too. If we're not careful, we'll have another Head Boy in the family. I don't think I could stand the shame."**

"There's nothing wrong with being Head Boy," Minerva said. She herself had been Head Girl in her day she thought fondly.

**Bill was the oldest Weasley brother. He and the next brother, Charlie, had already left Hogwarts. Harry had never met either of them, but knew that Charlie was in Romania studying dragons and Bill in Egypt working for the wizard's bank, Gringotts.**

**"Dunno how Mum and Dad are going to afford all our school stuff this year," said George after a while. "Five sets of Lockhart books! And Ginny needs robes and a wand and everything…"**

Arthur looked guilty. While Bill and Charlie just sighed they had tried to send money but it was always returned.

**Harry said nothing. He felt a bit awkward. Stored in an underground vault at Gringotts in London was a small fortune that his parents had left him. Of course, it was only in the wizarding world that he had money; you couldn't use Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts in Muggle shops. He had never mentioned his Gringotts bank account to the Dursleys; he didn't think their horror of anything connected with magic would stretch to a large pile of gold.**

**Mrs. Weasley woke them all early the following Wednesday. After a quick half a dozen bacon sandwiches each, they pulled on their coats and Mrs. Weasley took a flowerpot off the kitchen mantelpiece and peered inside.**

**"We're running low, Arthur," she sighed. "We'll have to buy some more today… Ah well, guests first! After you, Harry dear!"**

**And she offered him the flowerpot.**

**Harry stared at them all watching him.**

"What's wrong?" Remus asked.

"Harry never traveled by the Floo before," Arthur explained thinking back.

"Oh," Remus said, before a bad thought suddenly came to mind. "Why do I get the feeling that it didn't go as well as it could've?"

"That's because it didn't," Arthur said gloomily.

Everyone who heard this groaned

**"W-what am I supposed to do?" he stammered.**

**"He's never traveled by Floo powder," said Ron suddenly. "Sorry, Harry, I forgot."**

**"Never?" said Mr. Weasley. "But how did you get to Diagon Alley to buy your school things last year?"**

**"I went on the Underground —"**

**"Really?" said Mr. Weasley eagerly. "Were there escapators? How exactly —"**

"I think you mean escalators, Arthur," Remus said smiling and Arthur blushed.

**"Not now, Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley. "Floo powder's a lot quicker, dear, but goodness me, if you've never used it before —"**

**"He'll be all right, Mum," said Fred. "Harry, watch us first."**

**He took a pinch of glittering powder out of the flowerpot, stepped up to the fire, and threw the powder into the flames.**

**With a roar, the fire turned emerald green and rose higher than Fred, who stepped right into it, shouted, "Diagon Alley!" and vanished.**

**"You must speak clearly, dear," Mrs. Weasley told Harry as George dipped his hand into the flowerpot. "And be sure to get out at the right grate…"**

**"The right what?" said Harry nervously as the fire roared and whipped George out of sight, too.**

**"Well, there are an awful lot of wizard fires to choose from, you know, but as long as you've spoken clearly —"**

**"He'll be fine, Molly, don't fuss," said Mr. Weasley, helping himself to Floo powder too.**

**"But, dear, if he got lost, how would we ever explain to his aunt and uncle?"**

"I don't think they would mind," Remus said with a bitter taste in his mouth, "I doubt they would even care."

**"They wouldn't mind," Harry reassured her. "Dudley would think it was a brilliant joke if I got lost up a chimney, don't worry about that —"**

**"Well… all right… you go after Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley. "Now, when you get into the fire, say where you're going."**

**"And keep your elbows tucked in," Ron advised.**

**"And your eyes shut," said Mrs. Weasley. "The soot —"**

**"Don't fidget," said Ron. "Or you might well fall out of the wrong fireplace —"**

**"But don't panic and get out too early; wait until you see Fred and George."**

**Trying hard to bear all this in mind, Harry took a pinch of Floo powder and walked to the edge of the fire. He took a deep breath, scattered the powder into the flames, and stepped forward; the fire felt like a warm breeze; he opened his mouth and immediately swallowed a lot of hot ash.**

**"D-Dia-gon Alley," he coughed.**

They were all quiet for a brief moment.

"That can't be good," Neville muttered quietly.

"He got lost didn't he?" Remus asked the Weasleys men who were looking ashamed.

"It's not your fault," Tonks said, trying to lighten the mood. "Harry clearly just has terrible luck."

**It felt as though he was being sucked down a giant drain. **

**He seemed to be spinning very fast — the roaring in his ears was deafening — he tried to keep his eyes open but the whirl of green flames made him feel sick —something hard knocked his elbow and he tucked it in tightly, still spinning and spinning — now it felt as though cold hands were slapping his face — squinting through his glasses he saw a blurred stream of fireplaces and snatched glimpses of the rooms beyond — his bacon sandwiches were churning inside him — he closed his eyes again wishing it would stop, and then…**

**He fell, face forward, onto cold stone and felt the bridge of his glasses snap.**

"Oh," Arthur said wincing. "Guess I forgot to mention to him to take off his glasses."

"Sorry Harry." He added quickly. Harry just waved it off smiling.

**Dizzy and bruised, covered in soot, he got gingerly to his feet, holding his broken glasses up to his eyes. He was quite alone, but where he was, he had no idea. All he could tell was that he was standing in the stone fireplace of what looked like a large, dimly lit wizard's shop — but nothing in here was ever likely to be on a Hogwarts school list.**

"Where the heck is he?" Luna said panicking slightly. Neville pulled her into a hug to sooth her.

**A glass case nearby held a withered hand on a cushion, a bloodstained pack of cards, and a staring glass eye. Evil-looking masks stared down from the walls, an assortment of human bones lay upon the counter, and rusty, spiked instruments hung from the ceiling. **

"Please don't tell me he ended up where I think he did," Minerva said shaking her head.

"He's in Bogans and Burkes in Knockturn alley," Severus spat.

**Even worse, the dark, narrow street Harry could see through the dusty shop window was definitely not Diagon Alley.**

**The sooner he got out of here, the better. Nose still stinging where it had hit the hearth, Harry made his way swiftly and silently toward the door, but before he'd got halfway toward it, two people appeared on the other side of the glass — and one of them was the very last person Harry wanted to meet when he was lost, covered in soot, and wearing broken glasses: Draco Malfoy.**

"Of all the possible people to run into!" Tonks cried. "Harry really does have the worst luck doesn't he?" Harry nodded hearing this along with the other people who knew him well.

"You have no idea," Arthur muttered under his breath.

**Harry looked quickly around and spotted a large black cabinet to his left; he shot inside it and pulled the doors closed, leaving a small crack to peer through. **

**Seconds later, a bell clanged, and Malfoy stepped into the shop.**

**The man who followed could only be Draco's father. **

"It gets even worse!" Fred yelled. "Lucius Malfoy?!"

"Quiet!" Arthur said as he leaned forward to listen. "I want to hear this!"

Fred and George looked at the father and rolled their eyes while the others chuckled.

**He had the same pale, pointed face and identical cold, gray eyes. Mr. Malfoy crossed the shop, looking lazily at the items on display, and rang a bell on the counter before turning to his son and saying, "Touch nothing, Draco."**

**Malfoy, who had reached for the glass eye, said, "I thought you were going to buy me a present."**

**"I said I would buy you a racing broom," said his father, drumming his fingers on the counter.**

**"What's the good of that if I'm not on the House team?" said Malfoy, looking sulky and bad-tempered. "Harry Potter got a Nimbus Two Thousand last year. Special permission from Dumbledore so he could play for Gryffindor. He's not even that good, it's just because he's famous… famous for having a stupid scar on his forehead…"**

Harry glared at Draco for this comment.

**Malfoy bent down to examine a shelf full of skulls.**

**"… everyone thinks he's so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick —"**

"Oh, looks like someone's a little jealous," Tonks sang slyly.

Draco blush furiously and Harry smirked at him ruffling his hair.

**"You have told me this at least a dozen times already," said Mr. Malfoy, with a quelling look at his son. "And I would remind you that it is not — prudent — to appear less than fond of Harry Potter, not when most of our kind regard him as the hero who made the Dark Lord disappear — ah, Mr. Borgin."**

**A stooping man had appeared behind the counter, smoothing his greasy hair back from his face.**

**"Mr. Malfoy, what a pleasure to see you again," said Mr. Borgin in a voice as oily as his hair. **

"Well," Tonks stated, "I can see that he's clearly a regular in that dump."

**"Delighted — and young Master Malfoy, too — charmed. How may I be of assistance? I must show you, just in today, and very reasonably priced —"**

**"I'm not buying today, Mr. Borgin, but selling," said Mr. Malfoy.**

**"Selling?" The smile faded slightly from Mr. Borgin's face.**

"Of course it did," Remus muttered coldly.

**"You have heard, of course, that the Ministry is conducting more raids," said Mr. Malfoy, taking a roll of parchment from his inside pocket and unraveling it for Mr. Borgin to read. "I have a few — ah — items at home that might embarrass me, if the Ministry were to call…"**

**Mr. Borgin fixed a pair of pince-nez to his nose and looked down the list.**

**"The Ministry wouldn't presume to trouble you, sir, surely?"**

"Of course not," Arthur growled, "Because he pays them a lot of gold to leave him alone."

Lucius shrugged and smirked back at Arthur.

**Mr. Malfoy's lip curled.**

**"I have not been visited yet. The name Malfoy still commands a certain respect, yet the Ministry grows ever more meddlesome. There are rumors about a new Muggle Protection Act — no doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it —"**

"Why that rotten…" Bill, Charlie, Fred and George started muttering words that were not appropriate for present company.

Arthur's hands curled up into fists and he seemed to be restraining himself from doing something stupid.

**Harry felt a hot surge of anger.**

**"— and as you see, certain of these poisons might make it appear —"**

**"I understand, sir, of course," said Mr. Borgin. "Let me see…"**

**"Can I have that?" interrupted Draco, pointing at the withered hand on its cushion.**

**"Ah, the Hand of Glory!" said Mr. Borgin, abandoning Mr. Malfoy's list and scurrying over to Draco. "Insert a candle and it gives light only to the holder! Best friend of thieves and plunderers! Your son has fine taste, sir."**

"Lucius won't like hearing that," Ameila declared watching the elder Malfoy.

**"I hope my son will amount to more than a thief or a plunderer, Borgin," said Mr. Malfoy coldly, and Mr. Borgin said quickly, "No offense, sir, no offense meant —"**

**"Though if his grades don't pick up," said Mr. Malfoy, more coldly still, "that may indeed be all he is fit for —"**

**"It's not my fault," retorted Draco. "The teachers all have favorites, that Hermione Granger —"**

Mineaver glared angrily at Draco she did not favour her more than the others if she was honest she found the girls style far too annoying.

**"I would have thought you'd be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam," snapped Mr. Malfoy.**

**"Ha!" said Harry under his breath, pleased to see Draco looking both abashed and angry.**

"Sorry." Harry whispered quietly to him, Draco simply nodded making Harry frown.

**"It's the same all over," said Mr. Borgin, in his oily voice. "Wizard blood is counting for less everywhere —"**

**"Not with me," said Mr. Malfoy, his long nostrils flaring.**

**"No, sir, nor with me, sir," said Mr. Borgin, with a deep bow.**

Sophia just glared angrily at Lucius.

**"In that case, perhaps we can return to my list," said Mr. Malfoy shortly. "I am in something of a hurry, Borgin, I have important business elsewhere today —"**

**They started to haggle. Harry watched nervously as Draco drew nearer and nearer to his hiding place, examining the objects for sale. Draco paused to examine a long coil of hangman's rope and to read, smirking, the card propped on a magnificent necklace of opals, **_**Caution: Do Not Touch. Cursed — Has Claimed the Lives of Nineteen Muggle Owners to Date.**_

**Draco turned away and saw the cabinet right in front of him. He walked forward — he stretched out his hand for the handle... "Done," said Mr. Malfoy at the counter. "Come, Draco —"**

They all released a breath of relief that none of them realized that they were holding.

**Harry wiped his forehead on his sleeve as Draco turned away.**

**"Good day to you, Mr. Borgin. I'll expect you at the manor tomorrow to pick up the goods."**

**The moment the door had closed, Mr. Borgin dropped his oily manner.**

"Of course he did," Severus stated. He was like that for all of his customers. He never did like the man and his shady dealing in the first place.

**"Good day yourself, Mister Malfoy, and if the stories are true, you haven't sold me half of what's hidden in your manor…" Muttering darkly, Mr. Borgin disappeared into a back room. Harry waited for a minute in case he came back, then, quietly as he could, slipped out of the cabinet, past the glass cases, and out of the shop door.**

"At least he's out of that horrible shop!" Bill said and Charlie nodded in agreement.

**Clutching his broken glasses to his face, Harry stared around. He had emerged into a dingy alleyway that seemed to be made up entirely of shops devoted to the Dark Arts. The one he'd just left, Borgin and Burkes, looked like the largest, but opposite was a nasty window display of shrunken heads and, two doors down, a large cage was alive with gigantic black spiders. **

"Definitely not the best place to take your kids to," Tonks stated while Amelia nodded in agreement.

**Two shabby-looking wizards were watching him from the shadow of a doorway, muttering to each other. **

**Feeling jumpy, Harry set off, trying to hold his glasses on straight and hoping against hope he'd be able to find a way out of here.**

**An old wooden street sign hanging over a shop selling poisonous candles told him he was in Knockturn Alley. This didn't help, as Harry had never heard of such a place. He supposed he hadn't spoken clearly enough through his mouthful of ashes back in the Weasleys' fire. Trying to stay calm, he wondered what to do.**

"Good, just stay calm and you're sure to figure it out," Remus said approvingly.

**"Not lost are you, my dear?" said a voice in his ear, making him jump.**

**An aged witch stood in front of him, holding a tray of what looked horribly like whole human fingernails. She leered at him, showing mossy teeth. Harry backed away.**

"I don't blame him," said Minerva as her nose wrinkled in revulsion.

**"I'm fine, thanks," he said. "I'm just —"**

**"HARRY! What d'yeh think yer doin' down there?"**

"Is that who I think it is?" Remus asked with a slight laugh.

"It was Hagrid," Tonks said in relief. "He'll be fine now."

**Harry's heart leapt. So did the witch; a load of fingernails cascaded down over her feet and she cursed as the massive form of Hagrid, the Hogwarts' gamekeeper, came striding toward them, beetle-black eyes flashing over his great bristling beard.**

**"Hagrid!" Harry croaked in relief. "I was lost — Floo powder —"**

**Hagrid seized Harry by the scruff of the neck and pulled him away from the witch, knocking the tray right out of her hands. **

"Hagrid always did have the gentle touch didn't he?" Severus said with heavy sarcasm.

Sophia chuckled quietly when he whispered that to her.

**Her shrieks followed them all the way along the twisting alleyway out into bright sunlight. Harry saw a familiar, snow-white marble building in the distance — Gringotts Bank. Hagrid had steered him right into Diagon Alley.**

**"Yer a mess!" said Hagrid gruffly; brushing soot off Harry so forcefully he nearly knocked him into a barrel of dragon dung outside an apothecary. **

**"Skulkin' around Knockturn Alley, I dunno... dodgy place, Harry — don' want no one ter see yeh down there —"**

**"I realized that," said Harry, ducking as Hagrid made to brush him off again. "I told you, I was lost — what were you doing down there, anyway?"**

**"I was lookin' fer a Flesh-Eatin' Slug Repellent," growled Hagrid. "They're ruinin' the school cabbages. Yer not on yer own?"**

"That's it?" Tonks said sounding disappointed. "Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent?"

"What were you expecting?" Minerva asked suspiciously.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just wasn't expecting something so… boring."

**"I'm staying with the Weasleys but we got separated," Harry explained. "I've got to go and find them…"**

**They set off together down the street.**

**"How come yeh never wrote back ter me?" said Hagrid as Harry jogged alongside him (he had to take three steps to every stride of Hagrid's enormous boots). Harry explained all about Dobby and the Dursleys.**

**"Lousy Muggles," growled Hagrid. "If I'd've known —"**

**"Harry! Harry! Over here!"**

**Harry looked up and saw Hermione Granger standing at the top of the white flight of steps to Gringotts. She ran down to meet them, her bushy brown hair flying behind her.**

Growls could be heard all around the room when the bush haired one appeared.

**"What happened to your glasses? Hello, Hagrid — Oh, it's wonderful to see you two again — Are you coming into Gringotts, Harry?"**

**"As soon as I've found the Weasleys," said Harry.**

**"Yeh won't have long ter wait," Hagrid said with a grin.**

**Harry and Hermione looked around: Sprinting up the crowded street were Ron, Fred, George, Percy, and Mr. Weasley.**

**"Harry," Mr. Weasley panted. "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far…" He mopped his glistening bald patch. "Molly's frantic — she's coming now —"**

"Worried about losing all that money more like." Sophia muttered darkly. Severus smirked at her before continuing reading.

**"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.**

**"Knockturn Alley," said Hagrid grimly.**

**"Excellent!" said Fred and George together.**

**"We've never been allowed in," said Ron enviously.**

"I should hope not!" Madam Pomfrey said sternly. "It's no place for children!"

The all quickly looked at the floor avoiding her glare.

**"I should ruddy well think not," growled Hagrid. Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly in one hand, Ginny just clinging onto the other.**

**"Oh, Harry — oh, my dear — you could have been anywhere —"**

**Gasping for breath she pulled a large clothes brush out of her bag and began sweeping off the soot Hagrid hadn't managed to beat away. Mr. Weasley took Harry's glasses, gave them a tap of his wand, and returned them, good as new.**

Sophia sighed adding another thing to her growing list. Getting Harry's eyes fixed.

**"Well, gotta be off," said Hagrid, who was having his hand wrung by Mrs. Weasley ("Knockturn Alley! If you hadn't found him, Hagrid!"). "See yer at Hogwarts!" And he strode away, head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the packed street.**

**"Guess who I saw in Borgin and Burkes?" Harry asked Ron and Hermione as they climbed the Gringotts steps. "Malfoy and his father."**

**"Did Lucius Malfoy buy anything?" said Mr. Weasley sharply behind them.**

**"No, he was selling —"**

"Bet that made your day, Arthur," Tonks teased and Arthur just shrugged. While he did love hearing about how worried that Malfoy was, he enjoyed giving him a black eye even more.

**"So he's worried," said Mr. Weasley with grim satisfaction. "Oh, I'd love to get Lucius Malfoy for something…"**

"I think we're all rooting for you on that one, Arthur," said Remus grinning.

**"You be careful, Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley sharply as they were bowed into the bank by a goblin at the door. "That family's trouble. Don't go biting off more than you can chew —"**

**"So you don't think I'm a match for Lucius Malfoy?" said Mr. Weasley indignantly, **

**but he was distracted almost at once by the sight of Hermione's parents, who were standing nervously at the counter that ran all along the great marble hall, waiting for Hermione to introduce them.**

**"But you're Muggles!" said Mr. Weasley delightedly. "We must have a drink! What's that you've got there? Oh, you're changing Muggle money. Molly, look!" He pointed excitedly at the ten-pound notes in Mr. Granger's hand.**

All of them laughed at Arthur's antics, even himself.

**"Meet you back here," Ron said to Hermione as the Weasleys and Harry were led off to their underground vaults by another Gringotts goblin.**

**The vaults were reached by means of small, goblin-driven carts that sped along miniature train tracks through the bank's underground tunnels. **

**Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys' vault, but felt dreadful, far worse than he had in Knockturn Alley, when it was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon. Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag. **

Arthur was looking miserable, maybe this was why Molly betrayed him. He sons just shook their heads and hugged him.

**Harry felt even worse when they reached his vault. He tried to block the contents from view as he hastily shoved handfuls of coins into a leather bag.**

**Back outside on the marble steps, they all separated. Percy muttered vaguely about needing a new quill. Fred and George had spotted their friend from Hogwarts, Lee Jordan. Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to a secondhand robe shop. Mr. Weasley was insisting on taking the Grangers off to the Leaky Cauldron for a drink.**

**"We'll all meet at Flourish and Blotts in an hour to buy your schoolbooks," said Mrs. Weasley, setting off with Ginny. "And not one step down Knockturn Alley!" she shouted at the twins' retreating backs.**

"Did you listen?" Minerva asked glaring at the twins..

They whistled innocently and looked around the room while everyone chuckled.

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione strolled off along the winding, cobbled street. The bag of gold, silver, and bronze jangling cheerfully in Harry's pocket was clamoring to be spent, so he bought three large strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice creams, which they slurped happily as they wandered up the alley, examining the fascinating shop windows. **

**Ron gazed longingly at a full set of Chudley Cannon robes in the windows of Quality Quidditch Supplies until Hermione dragged them off to buy ink and parchment next door. In Gambol and Japes Wizarding Joke Shop, they met Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, who were stocking up on Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks, and in a tiny junk shop full of broken wands, lopsided brass scales, and old cloaks covered in potion stains they found Percy, deeply immersed in a small and deeply boring book called Prefects Who Gained Power.**

**"A study of Hogwarts prefects and their later careers," Ron read aloud off the back cover. "That sounds fascinating…"**

"Must be a best seller," Charlie said causally and several others snorted.

"**Go away," Percy snapped.**

"'**Course, he's very ambitious, Percy, he's got it all planned out… He wants to be Minister of Magic…" Ron told Harry and Hermione in an undertone as they left Percy to it.**

Percy sighed he really just wanted to make them proud of him, maybe he was just going about this all in the wrong way. With that thought in mind he decided to ask Bill for some advice later when they were alone.

**An hour later, they headed for Flourish and Blotts. **

"Oh," Tonks said, "So this must be where something happens."

"Yeah," Arthur snarled, realizing that this must be where all this trouble starts. During the fight—which felt so good—Malfoy must've given Ginny the diary that almost ended up killing her. Although at the moment he was so confused how he felt towards his baby girl.

**They were by no means the only ones making their way to the bookshop. As they approached it, they saw to their surprise a large crowd jostling outside the doors, trying to get in. The reason for this was proclaimed by a large banner stretched across the upper windows:**

_**GILDEROY LOCKHART**_

_**will be signing copies of his autobiography**_

_**MAGICAL ME**_

_**today 12:30P. 4:30P.M.**_

**"We can actually meet him!" Hermione squealed. "I mean, he's written almost the whole booklist!"**

"I thought that she was supposed to be the smart one out of the three of them," Severus said smirking

Minerva just stared at him. "Guess we were wrong?"

**The crowd seemed to be made up mostly of witches around Mrs. Weasley's age. A harassed-looking wizard stood at the door, saying, "Calmly, please, ladies… Don't push, there… mind the books, now…"**

**Harry, Ron, and Hermione squeezed inside. A long line wound right to the back of the shop, where Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. They each grabbed a copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 and sneaked up the line to where the rest of the Weasleys were standing with Mr. and Mrs. Granger.**

**"Oh, there you are, good," said Mrs. Weasley. She sounded breathless and kept patting her hair. "We'll be able to see him in a minute…"**

They all looked at Molly who scowled angrily at the table.

**Gilderoy Lockhart came slowly into view, seated at a table surrounded by large pictures of his own face, all winking and flashing dazzlingly white teeth at the crowd. The real Lockhart was wearing robes of forget-me-not blue that exactly matched his eyes; his pointed wizard's hat was set at a jaunty angle on his wavy hair.**

The girls in the room could be heard giggling and sighing softly then males just glared at there stupidity.

**A short, irritable-looking man was dancing around taking photographs with a large black camera that emitted puffs of purple smoke with every blinding flash.**

"I don't blame him," Bill said shaking his head. "I'd be irritable too if I had to take pictures of him all day."

**"Out of the way, there," he snarled at Ron, moving back to get a better shot. "This is for the Daily Prophet —"**

**"Big deal," said Ron, rubbing his foot where the photographer had stepped on it.**

**Gilderoy Lockhart heard him. He looked up. He saw Ron — and then he saw Harry. He stared. Then he leapt to his feet and positively shouted, "It can't be Harry Potter?"**

Of course that git would pick out the one person who didn't want to draw attention.

Harry glared at the book fist clenched. God he hated his fame. Severus looked at him eyebrows raised slightly in confusion.

**The crowd parted, whispering excitedly; Lockhart dived forward, seized Harry's arm, and pulled him to the front. The crowd burst into applause. Harry's face burned as Lockhart shook his hand for the photographer, who was clicking away madly, wafting thick smoke over the Weasleys.**

**"Nice big smile, Harry," said Lockhart, through his own gleaming teeth. "Together, you and I are worth the front page."**

"He's just using Harry to try and boost his own publicity!" Several of the students growled.

"Harry is worth the front page on his own, he doesn't need Lockhart here," Minerva said. Harry blushed scarlet as Draco and Neville started cooing at him. Luna simply burst out laughing.

**When he finally let go of Harry's hand, Harry could hardly feel his fingers. He tried to sidle back over to the Weasleys, but Lockhart threw an arm around his shoulders and clamped him tightly to his side.**

"Kick him Harry." Fred shouted.

**"Ladies and gentlemen," he said loudly, waving for quiet. "What an extraordinary moment this is! The perfect moment for me to make a little announcement I've been sitting on for some time!**

All the teachers groaned, which let the others know what this _'announcement'_ was going to be.

**"When young Harry here stepped into Flourish and Blotts today, he only wanted to buy my autobiography — which I shall be happy to present him now, free of charge —" The crowd applauded again. **

**"He had no idea," Lockhart continued, giving Harry a little shake that made his glasses slip to the end of his nose, "that he would shortly be getting much, much more than my book, Magical Me. He and his schoolmates will, in fact, be getting the real magical me. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have great pleasure and pride in announcing that this September, I will be taking up the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"**

"Why?" Severus looked up from readying groaned at the headmaster. "No one but his little fan club of girls could stand him at school! How could you bring him in to teach kids?"

Sophia scrolled as Dumbledore looked back at them all with that it's for the greater good smile. She would love to cut it off. She sent a powerful stinging hex at him and smirked when he screamed. Severus looked at her with pure adoration while the students snickered.

**The crowd cheered and clapped and Harry found himself being presented with the entire works of Gilderoy Lockhart. Staggering slightly under their weight, he managed to make his way out of the limelight to the edge of the room, where Ginny was standing next to her new cauldron.**

**"You have these," Harry mumbled to her, tipping the books into the cauldron. "I'll buy my own —"**

"That was nice of him," Tonks said smiling at Harry who blushed.

"You know," Filius said sourly. "I bet that's the real reason he took the job. He did it to get people to buy his stupid books. If he was the teacher then of course he would put all of them on the list. I bet he made a fortune, from all the Hogwarts students!"

"Wouldn't surprise me if he did," Minerva said cynically.

**"Bet you loved that, didn't you, Potter?" said a voice Harry had no trouble recognizing. He straightened up and found himself face-to-face with Draco Malfoy, who was wearing his usual sneer.**

**"Famous Harry Potter," said Malfoy. "Can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."**

"Jealous much?" Tonks asked sourly.

Draco blushed and Tonks just smirked at her baby cousin chuckling.

**"Leave him alone, he didn't want all that!" said Ginny. It was the first time she had spoken in front of Harry. She was glaring at Malfoy.**

Fred and George burst out laughing.

**"Potter, you've got yourself a girlfriend!" drawled Malfoy. Ginny went scarlet as Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart's books.**

Harry took the time to glare at Ginny who flushed.

**"Oh, it's you," said Ron, looking at Malfoy as if he were something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?"**

**"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley," retorted Malfoy. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those."**

Draco turned bright red and ducked his head and muttered "sorry"

**Ron went as red as Ginny. He dropped his books into the cauldron, too, and started toward Malfoy, but Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his jacket.**

**"Ron!" said Mr. Weasley, struggling over with Fred and George. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."**

**"Well, well, well — Arthur Weasley."**

**It was Mr. Malfoy. He stood with his hand on Draco's shoulder, sneering in just the same way.**

"Of course he is," Arthur hissed with narrow eyes. "He's as rotten to the core as his son is."

"Leave Draco along there is nothing wrong with him. You cant exactly comment." Harry said pointing angrily at the traitors before quickly wrapping his arms around Draco with Neville and Luna whispering worlds of comfort.

Sophia glared and waved her hand so ice cream appeared in front of the kids. Ice cream always helped.

**"Lucius," said Mr. Weasley, nodding coldly.**

**"Busy time at the Ministry, I hear," said Mr. Malfoy. "All those raids… I hope they're paying you overtime?"**

**He reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration.**

The ones who knew what happened during that year all stiffened. This must be where he slipped the diary into Ginny's position. And then the whole nightmare began.

**"Obviously not," Mr. Malfoy said. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"**

"Disgrace to the name of wizardry." Sophia said bursting out laughing.

"I'm sorry but if anyone is a disgrace it's you." Lucius looked outraged and was about to speak until she waved him down before carrying on speaking.

"Let me explain this to you, there are hardly any magical beings left yet you stupidly decide to kill them in you drive to kill everything in your way. Also you only have one child and you wonder why are race is dying out as the rate you idiots are going in around 100 years the muggles will have wiped you all out and before you protest yes they have the power to do that." Sophia stopped her rant and glared at Severus who quickly started to read.

**Mr. Weasley flushed darker than either Ron or Ginny.**

**"We have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, Malfoy," he said.**

**"Clearly," said Mr. Malfoy, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley… and I thought your family could sink no lower."**

**There was a thud of metal as Ginny's cauldron went flying; Mr. Weasley had thrown himself at Mr. Malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. **

There was a short pause while Severus read the line and then…

"BRILLIANT DAD!" Bill roared. He clapped Arthur on the back.

"Way to go Dad." Charlie said smiling broadly at his dad.

Arthur blushed and ducked his head at all the attention he was getting.

**Dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of, "Get him, Dad!" from Fred or George; Mrs. Weasley was shrieking, "No, Arthur, no!"; the crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over; "Gentlemen, please — please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all —**

**"Break it up, there, gents, break it up —"**

"Ah," Charlie said disappointed. "It's over already?"

**Hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. In an instant he had pulled Mr. Weasley and Mr. Malfoy apart. Mr. Weasley had a cut lip and Mr. Malfoy had been hit in the eye by an Encyclopedia of Toadstools. **

**He was still holding Ginny's old Transfiguration book. He thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.**

**"Here, girl — take your book — it's the best your father can give you —" Pulling himself out of Hagrid's grip he beckoned to Draco and swept from the shop.**

**"Yeh should've ignored him, Arthur," said Hagrid, almost lifting Mr. Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes. **

"How could he?" Tonks demanded. "Malfoy was insulting his family, and the Grangers!"

Arthur was glaring at the books furiously. Lucius was starting to realise his mistakes, it was hard he was a product of his childhood and he was old age had a way of affecting people.

**"Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that — no Malfoy's worth listenin' ter — bad blood, that's what it is — come on now — let's get outta here."**

Draco shifted uncomfortably in hi seat. Harry put and arm round him squeezing his shoulder in support.

**The assistant looked as though he wanted to stop them leaving, but he barely came up to Hagrid's waist and seemed to think better of it. They hurried up the street, the Grangers shaking with fright and Mrs. Weasley beside herself with fury.**

**"A fine example to set for your children… brawling in public… what Gilderoy Lockhart must've thought —"**

"I don't think he minded," Lucius commented quietly. "Probably enjoyed it if it gave him more publicity."

Narcissa stifled a laugh behind her hand trying to keep her mask in place.

**"He was pleased," said Fred. "Didn't you hear him as we were leaving? He was asking that bloke from the Daily Prophet if he'd be able to work the fight into his report — said it was all publicity —"**

The hall burst out laughing.

"pompous prat" several of the adults muttered having to put up with him for the year.

**But it was a subdued group that headed back to the fireside in the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry, the Weasleys, and all their shopping would be traveling back to the Burrow using Floo powder. They said good-bye to the Grangers, who were leaving the pub for the Muggle street on the other side; Mr. Weasley started to ask them how bus stops worked, but stopped quickly at the look on Mrs. Weasley's face.**

**Harry took off his glasses and put them safely in his pocket before helping himself to Floo powder. It definitely wasn't his favorite way to travel.**

"Me neither," Tonks muttered to no one in particular as several people nodded in agreement.

Severus closed the book. "that's the end of the chapter."

"Let's take a short break." Sophia said and without looking back glided quickly out of the room. The hall was too shocked at how quickly she left but by the time anyone had chance to follow her she was gone.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N - Hi all I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year! Would just like to say thank you for the reviews they have been amazing!. **

**Still looking for a BETA if anyone is interested let me know. **

**Also if you have any recommendations for this story send me a message. **

**I have decided from now on since I am back to work my upload day will be every Sunday and there will be a minimum of 1 chapter. So on with the story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or it's world never have done and never will do this is purely for fun and my own amusement. **

...

Sophia needed space she wasn't used to being round so many people well alive ones anyway. She was so used to spending time with her parents and crossing paths with the dead and they defiantly had interesting stories to tell. But she was tired of simply existing she wanted to start living she wanted a family and that led her to Harry. She had watched him of course she had seen the hand fate had given him and asked if she could intervene. So with her goal set she returned to England taking her rightful place, her plan was simple rescue Harry and then return the wizarding community to its rightful place it was simple.

Well simple until her plans fell apart. Severus and Tom what to do which one was she to choose she knew deep down that one of them was her soul mate the attraction and calling was there but which one should she pick. She was terrified of making a mistake and also she had to factor in Harry he was her world now they were a package deal. Neither man had been brilliant to him one had killed his parents and the other had bullied him for years. Sophia could never catch a break. She sat for a long while invisible her feet dipping into the lake before she remembered that she had to reply to his letter. Sighing should pulled a quill and parchment from her bag and began to write a response.

_Dear Tom, _

_First let me thank you for the beautiful necklace I love it you defiantly picked correctly. As for the new dark mark it meets with my approval it is defiantly more attractive than the last. I recommend making it invisible to all except fellow death eaters and those with a dark affinity. That way your people will evade capture. _

_I have been thinking and if you completely renounce your goal of world domination then there are other options available to you. You could always go back into teaching if that is what you wanted to do. Hogwarts will be moving to a new location and there will be a complete staff overhaul. However I will not be able to go into detail until around June. _

_I am tiring of reading through these books with the students I may just read the last three chapters of each book and tell him to enjoy their deaths and leave with Harry. That poor boy has suffered so much in his short life and he is now my number one priority I need to give him a childhood. I should be getting back I have been gone too long. Take your time and think long and hard about your life and goals. _

_Give my regards to Bella and her husband. _

_Regards, _

_Sophia. _

Sighing she re-read the letter before sealing it and watching it vanish. Why these people still used owls for post was idiotic. Sophia pushed herself off the ground she had decided that for the time being she would simply do nothing regarding her love life she would leave it to fate to decide who would be right for her family. For all she new Severus and Tom could just be a distraction and her real mate was still waiting. Sophia walked back into the great hall and smiled softly when she saw Harry chatting happily with his friends. Yes for now she decided it would all be able Harry.

...

Severus frowned as he watched Sophia flee from the hall he knew that something was playing on her mind after she received the letter from the Dark Lord. If he was to admit it to himself he was jealous. He loved Lily he always had done but now with Sophia every time he was near her or they touched his magic would tingle beneath his skin he long to hold her in his arms but he knew that was not possible she would never want someone like him so twisted and full of hatred. His frowned deepened and his rubbed his face with his hands.

Harry was his problem now he could no longer see him as potter after everything he had been through how could he have missed the signs of abuse so clearly there for all to see. He would have to apologise he would do it after they all had, had a good night's sleep. Yes sleep and a chance to clear his head was exactly what he needed. He wondered how many chapters there were left until he could escape.

His attention was brought back to the great hall when he heard the instant quiet that had descended he looked and the doors and smiled seeing Sophia there she looked so beautiful he couldn't take his eyes off her.

...

Harry Potter could not believe everything that had happened to him in such a short space of time. He had a mum. The thought of this made him smile Sophia was amazing she rescued his and she cared for him. He knew in his heart from now on with Sophia around nothing bad would happen to him. He only concern now was who was going to play dad. Severus Snape his biggest bully at Hogwarts was currently a leading contender and the thought of him being his dad made him want to scream he wished it could be just him and Sophia but he knew that was selfish and he couldn't do that to her.

Harry smiled and looked at his new friends Neville, Luna and Draco bloody Malfoy if someone had of told him last week that he would be friends with Draco he would have laughed in their face and dragged them to see Madam Pomfrey. And if he was honestly with himself he was growing rather attracted to the boy. Harry was very open with himself he knew he was gay he only just began to realise this when he began to check out guys rather that girls. The only down side to this was he could never have his own children and he longed for a family of his own. He would just have to adopt like Sophia had him there must be plenty of kids like him needed a home he would just wait and see what life brought him. At that moment he turned and a huge smile graced his face. There in the doorway was his new mum who was smiling at him yes Harry was defiantly happy with these turn of events.

...

**A/N – There you go readers another chapter completed. I know its a tad short so I have two questions for you all:**

**Who should Sophia be with?**

**Severus**

**Tom**

**Someone else entirely?**

**Should I skip the book reading so they only read the end chapters the most important bits?**

**Yes?**

**No?**

**I will open a poll for this and let you all decide because at the moment I don't really have a set goal I have an idea for the overall outcome but I'm open to suggestions of how to get there. **


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N – Well all here is a new chapter for you. Sorry about the wait had flu and in no mood to write. Although snow day today, so spent my time off work writing this. Hope you enjoy.**

**Response to reviews:**

**Rochelle – Thank you for reading. I am going through a stage of reading harry/Draco fanfiction but knowing me by the end of the story he may decide that he is not gay and run off with Susan Bones haha my preference is always changing. **

**Rebelxpunk – Sorry but I don't like the thought of her being with both. She only has one mate. **

**harrypotter4ever1017**** – I am leaning towards Severus and both will play a part after the travelling ... when everyone moves to their new home. **

**shazzygirl**** – Yes I agree i am leaning towards Severus.. and I'm going to.**

**Thank you for all the reviews they are great. I have decided to cut down on reading the chapters I am going to limit to 2/3 chapters per book and do a major recap to begin with. **

**Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or its world. This is just for fun. **

...

After the short break everyone settled down ready to begin again. Sophia waved her hand and smiled when the book landed in the lap of Draco. "Your turn," Sophia smiled sweetly at him.

Nervously he opened the book and began to read.

"**Chapter 16: The Chamber of Secrets**."

"Wait didn't we just read chapter 3?" Severus asked frowning in confusion

"Oh yes... well I got bored." Sophia said shrugging simply. Harry burst out laughing hearing this.

"Ok let me recap since I've decided to just let you guys read a couple of chapters of each book. So Weasel and Harry are unable to fly a car to Hogwarts getting seen by Muggles in the process which was completely stupid of them, they should have waited." Sophia paused here to stare at Harry who blushed looking down ashamed, smirking she carried on. "HHmm well they crashed into the Whomping Willow and the car escapes into the forest. Gildery Lockheart becomes defence professor and the man is a complete fraud. Students start getting petrified. Harry gets accused of being the heir of Slytherin by the sheep. Yes that's logical since his mother and so called best friend are muggleborn." Those who had accused Harry looked down ashamed at hearing this. "Let see Hagrid gets arrested because Fudge is incompetent and Harry and Weasel head into the forbidden forest to speak to the giant spiders. I think that's pretty much it. So on with the reading" Sophia finished looking at Draco who had his mouth hanging open like the rest of the room.

**"All those times we were in that bathroom, and she was just three toilets away," said Ron bitterly at breakfast next day, "and we could've asked her, and now…"**

Everyone looked at Sophia confused who blushed before speaking.

"Sorry ok well Moaning Myrtle is the ghost in the girl's bathroom who was killed when the chamber of secrets was opened before and Harry is starting to figure out where the entrance is." Sophia said looking at Harry proudly.

**It had been hard enough trying to look for spiders. Escaping their teachers long enough to sneak into a girls' bathroom, the girls' bathroom, moreover, right next to the scene of the first attack, was going to be almost impossible.**

**But something happened in their first lesson, Transfiguration, that drove the Chamber of Secrets out of their minds for the first time in weeks. Ten minutes into the class, Professor McGonagall told them that their exams would start on the first of June, one week from today.**

**"Exams?" howled Seamus Finnigan. "We're still getting exams?"**

The students groaned together hearing this while the staff simply smirked.

**There was a loud bang behind Harry as Neville Longbottom's wand slipped, vanishing one of the legs on his desk. Professor McGonagall restored it with a wave of her own wand, and turned, frowning, to Seamus.**

**"The whole point of keeping the school open at this time is for you to receive your education," she said sternly. **

**"The exams will therefore take place as usual, and I trust you are all studying hard."**

**Studying hard! It had never occurred to Harry that there would be exams with the castle in this state.**

**There was a great deal of mutinous muttering around the room, which made Professor McGonagall scowl even more darkly.**

**"Professor Dumbledore's instructions were to keep the school running as normally as possible, she said. "And that, I need hardly point out, means finding out how much you have learned this year."**

**Harry looked down at the pair of white rabbits he was supposed to be turning into slippers. What had he learned so far this year? He couldn't seem to think of anything that would be useful in an exam.**

"Well Harrykins you learnt not to fly a car to Hogwarts." Fred said smirking.

"You also learnt how to answer fan mail in detention with Lockhart." George smiled at him.

"Not a total loss." They cried together. Harry groaned trying to block out memories of that particular detention

**Ron looked as though he'd just been told he had to go and live in the Forbidden Forest.**

**"Can you imagine me taking exams with this?" he asked Harry, holding up his wand, which had just started whistling loudly.**

**Three days before their first exam, Professor McGonagall made another announcement at breakfast.**

**"I have good news," she said, and the Great Hall, instead of falling silent, erupted.**

**"Dumbledore's coming back!" several people yelled joyfully.**

Sophia groaned these people were such sheep it was sickening. Severus chuckled quietly next to her and she flashed him a dazzling smile making him catch his breath.

**"You've caught the Heir of Slytherin!" squealed a girl at the Ravenclaw table.**

**"Quidditch matches are back on!" roared Wood excitedly.**

"That child has a one track mind." Lady Malfoy muttered to her husband who nodded silently. He was not looking forward to the end of this book. His wife would be making him sleep on the sofa for least a month.

**When the hubbub had subsided, Professor McGonagall said, "Professor Sprout has informed me that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting at last. Tonight, we will be able to revive those people who have been Petrified. I need hardly remind you all that one of them may well be able to tell us who, or what, attacked them. I am hopeful that this dreadful year will end with our catching the culprit."**

**There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn't at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn't joined in. Ron, however, was looking happier than he'd looked in days.**

**"It won't matter that we never asked Myrtle, then!" he said to Harry. "Hermione'll probably have all the answers when they wake her up! **

The students turned to the traitor table and glared at them.

**Mind you, she'll go crazy when she finds out we've got exams in three days' time. She hasn't studied. It might be kinder to leave her where she is till they're over."**

**Just then, Ginny Weasley came over and sat down next to Ron. She looked tense and nervous, and Harry noticed that her hands were twisting in her lap.**

**"What's up?" said Ron, helping himself to more porridge.**

**Ginny didn't say anything, but glanced up and down the Gryffindor table with a scared look on her face that reminded Harry of someone, though he couldn't think who.**

Sophia leant forward in her chair listening closely. The adults sensing this was important leant forward to pay attention to. The students struggled confused by their actions.

**"Spit it out," said Ron, watching her.**

"Tactless as always," Arthur said shaking his head.

**Harry suddenly realized who Ginny looked like. She was rocking backward and forward slightly in her chair, exactly like Dobby did when he was teetering on the edge of revealing forbidden information.**

"She knows something." One little Slytherin whispered quietly to her friend.

**"I've got to tell you something," Ginny mumbled, carefully not looking at Harry.**

**"What is it?" said Harry.**

**Ginny looked as though she couldn't find the right words.**

**"What?" said Ron.**

**Ginny opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Harry leaned forward and spoke quietly, so that only Ginny and Ron could hear him.**

**"Is it something about the Chamber of Secrets? Have you seen something? Someone acting oddly?"**

**Ginny drew a deep breath and, at that precise moment, Percy Weasley appeared, looking tired and wan.**

The hall groaned and glared at Percy.

He looked remarkably pale and held up his hands in the air, "I'm sorry I don't mean to be such a prat."

**"If you've finished eating, I'll take that seat, Ginny. I'm starving, I've only just come off patrol duty."**

**Ginny jumped up as though her chair had just been electrified, gave Percy a fleeting, frightened look, and scampered away. Percy sat down and grabbed a mug from the center of the table.**

**"Percy!" said Ron angrily. "She was just about to tell us something important!"**

**Halfway through a gulp of tea, Percy choked.**

**"What sort of thing?" he said, coughing.**

**"I just asked her if she'd seen anything odd, and she started to say…"**

**"Oh — that — that's nothing to do with the Chamber of Secrets," said Percy at once.**

**"How do you know?" said Ron, his eyebrows raised.**

**"Well, er, if you must know, Ginny, er, walked in on me the other day when I was — well, never mind — the point is, she spotted me doing something and I, um, I asked her not to mention it to anybody. I must say, I did think she'd keep her word. It's nothing, really, I'd just rather —"**

Sophia, the twins and Harry chuckled while Percy blushed furiously.

"Percy has a girlfriend, Percy has a girlfriend." Fred and George sand happily.

"Percy and Penny sitting in a tree..."

"Shut Up". Percy growled at them elbowing them in the stomach. The whole hall was crying with laughter watching them.

**Harry had never seen Percy look so uncomfortable.**

**"What were you doing, Percy?" said Ron, grinning. "Go on, tell us, we won't laugh."**

**Percy didn't smile back.**

**"Pass me those rolls, Harry, I'm starving."**

**Harry knew the whole mystery might be solved tomorrow without their help, but he wasn't about to pass up a chance to speak to Myrtle if it turned up — and to his delight it did, midmorning, when they were being led to History of Magic by Gilderoy Lockhart.**

**Lockhart, who had so often assured them that all danger had passed, only to be proved wrong right away, was now wholeheartedly convinced that it was hardly worth the trouble to see them safely down the corridors. His hair wasn't as sleek as usual; it seemed he had been up most of the night, patrolling the fourth floor.**

**"Mark my words," he said, ushering them around a corner. "The first words out of those poor Petrified people's mouths will be 'It was Hagrid.'**

Hagrid glared at the book. While the students who liked Hagrid growled.

**Frankly, I'm astounded Professor McGonagall thinks all these security measures are necessary."**

**"I agree, sir," said Harry, making Ron drop his books in surprise.**

"I'm so proud. Our little Harry leans so fast." Fred said while him and George ran over hugged him and ruffled his hair before returning to their seats.

Harry sat stunned and open mouth. Sophia was trying so hard to contain her laughter. It took Draco a few tries to start reading again.

**"Thank you, Harry," said Lockhart graciously while they waited for a long line of Hufflepuffs to pass. "I mean, we teachers have quite enough to be getting on with, without walking students to classes and standing guard all night…"**

**"That's right," said Ron, catching on. "Why don't you leave us here, sir, we've only got one more corridor to go —"**

**"You know, Weasley, I think I will," said Lockhart. "I really should go and prepare my next class —"**

**And he hurried off.**

**"Prepare his class," Ron sneered after him. "Gone to curl his hair, more like."**

Several people chuckled while the Lockhart fangirls glared at Ron.

**They let the rest of the Gryffindors draw ahead of them, then darted down a side passage and hurried off toward Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. But just as they were congratulating each other on their brilliant scheme.**

**"Potter! Weasley! What are you doing?"**

**It was Professor McGonagall, and her mouth was the thinnest of thin lines.**

"I wish they came out and told me what they knew," Minerva said, sounding a little disappointed that some of her favorites didn't trust her enough to tell her about all this.

"Can you blame them?" Tonks asked her. "You wouldn't even hear them out last year when they tried to warn you about the Stone."

She turned red and looked to the floor in embarrassment.

**"We were — we were —" Ron stammered. "We were going to — to go and see —"**

**"Hermione," said Harry. Ron and Professor McGonagall both looked at him.**

**"We haven't seen her for ages, Professor," Harry went on hurriedly, treading on Ron's foot, "and we thought we'd sneak into the hospital wing, you know, and tell her the Mandrakes are nearly ready and, er, not to worry —"**

**Professor McGonagall was still staring at him, and for a moment, Harry thought she was going to explode, but when she spoke, it was in a strangely croaky voice.**

**"Of course," she said, and Harry, amazed, saw a tear glistening in her beady eye.**

**"Of course, I realize this has all been hardest on the friends of those who have been… I quite understand. Yes, Potter, of course you may visit Miss Granger. **

**I will inform Professor Binns where you've gone. Tell Madam Pomfrey I have given my permission."**

"I'm sorry ma'am I should have lied to you." Harry said looking down guiltily.

"It's find Mr Potter I will let you off this once." Professor McGonagall replied smiling at him slightly.

**Harry and Ron walked away, hardly daring to believe that they'd avoided detention. **

**As they turned the corner, they distinctly heard Professor McGonagall blow her nose.**

**"That," said Ron fervently, "was the best story you've ever come up with."**

**They had no choice now but to go to the hospital wing and tell Madam Pomfrey that they had Professor McGonagall's permission to visit Hermione.**

**Madam Pomfrey let them in, but reluctantly.**

**"There's just no point talking to a Petrified person," she said, and they had to admit she had a point when they'd taken their seats next to Hermione. It was plain that Hermione didn't have the faintest inkling that she had visitors, and that they might just as well tell her bedside cabinet not to worry for all the good it would do.**

**"Wonder if she did see the attacker, though?" said Ron, looking sadly at Hermione's rigid face. "Because if he sneaked up on them all, no one'll ever know…"**

**But Harry wasn't looking at Hermione's face. He was more interested in her right hand. It lay clenched on top of her blankets, and bending closer, he saw that a piece of paper was scrunched inside her fist.**

"Well look at that... Don't you think it's strange that no one noticed that piece of paper when they brought her in." Sophia said smirking at Dumbledore.

**Making sure that Madam Pomfrey was nowhere near, he pointed this out to Ron.**

**"Go on and get it out," Ron whispered, shifting his chair so that he blocked Harry from Madam Pomfrey's view.**

**It was no easy task. Hermione's hand was clamped so tightly around the paper that Harry was sure he was going to tear it. While Ron kept watch he tugged and twisted, and at last, after several tense minutes, the paper came free.**

**It was a page torn from a very old library book. **

**Harry smoothed it out eagerly and Ron leaned close to read it, too.**

_**Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents.**_

_**This snake, which may reach gigantic size and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death.**_

_**Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it.**_

**"And beneath this, a single word had been written, in a hand Harry recognized as Hermione's. **_**Pipes.**_**"**

The staff sat opened mouth staring at the book gaping.

"A BASILISK WAS ROAMING THE HALLS AND YOU DID NOT CLOSE THE SCHOOL AND CALL IN PROFESSIONALS ARE YOU PEOPLE COMPLETLY STUPID." Lady Malfoy was standing up bright red in rage shouting at the staff.

Sophia smiled from her seat leaning back watching all this progress. Oh yes she thought her plans were coming together nicely.

**It was as though somebody had just flicked a light on in his brain.**

**"Ron," he breathed. "This is it. This is the answer. The monster in the Chamber's a basilisk — a giant serpent! That's why I've been hearing that voice all over the place, and nobody else has heard it. It's because I understand Parseltongue…"**

**Harry looked up at the beds around him.**

**"The basilisk kills people by looking at them. But no one's died — because no one looked it straight in the eye. Colin saw it through his camera. The basilisk burned up all the film inside it, but Colin just got Petrified. Justin… Justin must've seen the basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! **

**Nick got the full blast of it, but he couldn't die again… **

**and Hermione and that Ravenclaw prefect were found with a mirror next to them. Hermione had just realized the monster was a basilisk. I bet you anything she warned the first person she met to look around corners with a mirror first! And that girl pulled out her mirror — and —"**

**Ron's jaw had dropped.**

**"And Mrs. Norris?" he whispered eagerly.**

**Harry thought hard, picturing the scene on the night of Halloween.**

**"The water…" he said slowly. "The flood from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. I bet you Mrs. Norris only saw the reflection…"**

**He scanned the page in his hand eagerly. The more he looked at it, the more it made sense.**

**"… The crowing of the rooster… is fatal to it"! he read aloud. "Hagrid's roosters were killed! The Heir of Slytherin didn't want one anywhere near the castle once the Chamber was opened! Spiders flee before it! It all fits!"**

**"But how's the basilisk been getting around the place?" said Ron. "A giant snake… Someone would've seen…"**

**Harry, however, pointed at the word Hermione had scribbled at the foot of the page.**

**"Pipes," he said. "Pipes… Ron, it's been using the plumbing. I've been hearing that voice inside the walls…"**

"Well done I am proud of you for putting it all together." Sophia smiled at him."

"Thank you Sophia." Harry smiled and blushed he loved the praise she was giving him.

Severus watched the two and his chest clenched painfully he knew he had to fix his and Harry's relationship and soon.

**Ron suddenly grabbed Harry's arm.**

**"The entrance to the Chamber of Secrets!" he said hoarsely. "What if it's a bathroom? What if it's in —"**

**"Moaning Myrtle's bathroom," said Harry.**

"The entrance to Slytherin's hidden chamber is in a girl's bathroom?" Fred said trying not to laugh. "I don't know if I should be impressed… or not."

"You got to hand it to Slytherin," Bill said trying to hide his own amusement. "He sure knew how to pick a place where no one would have a chance to ever find it."

"Except for every single girl that might go in there," Charlie said thoughtfully.

**They sat there, excitement coursing through them, hardly able to believe it.**

**"This means," said Harry, "I can't be the only Parselmouth in the school. The Heir of Slytherin's one, too.**

**That's how he's been controlling the basilisk."**

**"What're we going to do?" said Ron, whose eyes were flashing. "Should we go straight to McGonagall?"**

**"Let's go to the staff room," said Harry, jumping up. "She'll be there in ten minutes. It's nearly break."**

Severus stared at the book as did Minerva's jaw dropped. "They were actually going to a teacher with what they know?"

"They were going to tell Dumbledore what they knew in their first year remember?" Professor Sprout whispered to her. "But he was already gone by the time they got there."

**They ran downstairs. Not wanting to be discovered hanging around in another corridor, they went straight into the deserted staff room. It was a large, paneled room full of dark, wooden chairs. Harry and Ron paced around it, too excited to sit down.**

**But the bell to signal break never came.**

**Instead, echoing through the corridors came Professor McGonagall's voice, magically magnified.**

_**"All students to return to their House dormitories at once. All teachers return to the staff room. Immediately, please."**_

Everyone groaned hearing this just when they thought things would work out for Harry.

**Harry wheeled around to stare at Ron. "Not another attack? Not now?"**

**"What'll we do?" said Ron, aghast. "Go back to the dormitory?"**

**"No," said Harry, glancing around. There was an ugly sort of wardrobe to his left, full of the teachers' cloaks. "In here. Let's hear what it's all about. Then we can tell them what we've found out."**

The staff groaned and glared at the pair for listening in.

**They hid themselves inside it, listening to the rumbling of hundreds of people moving overhead, and the staff room door banging open. From between the musty folds of the cloaks, they watched the teachers filtering into the room. Some of them were looking puzzled, others downright scared. Then Professor McGonagall arrived.**

**"It has happened," she told the silent staff room. "A student has been taken by the monster. Right into the Chamber itself."**

The parents and the people who did not know this gasped in complete shock.

**Professor Flitwick let out a squeal. Professor Sprout clapped her hands over her mouth. Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard and said, "How can you be sure?"**

**"The Heir of Slytherin," said Professor McGonagall, who was very white, "left another message. Right underneath the first one. 'Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever.' "**

The majority of the females in the hall had tears rolling down there cheeks.

**Professor Flitwick burst into tears.**

**"Who is it?" said Madam Hooch, who had sunk, weak-kneed, into a chair. "Which student?"**

**"Ginny Weasley," said Professor McGonagall.**

Arthur had tears rolling down his cheeks he so wondered what happened to his sweet little princess. His son pulled him into a group hug as they shared their pain.

**Harry felt Ron slide silently down onto the wardrobe floor beside him.**

**"We shall have to send all the students home tomorrow," said Professor McGonagall. "This is the end of Hogwarts. Dumbledore always said…"**

**The staffroom door banged open again. For one wild moment, Harry was sure it would be Dumbledore. But it was Lockhart, and he was beaming.**

**"So sorry — dozed off — what have I missed?"**

Groans could be heard knowing that the peacock had arrived.

**He didn't seem to notice that the other teachers were looking at him with something remarkably like hatred. Snape stepped forward.**

**"Just the man," he said. "The very man. A girl has been snatched by the monster, Lockhart. Taken into the Chamber of Secrets itself. Your moment has come at last."**

**Lockhart blanched.**

**"That's right, Gilderoy," chipped in Professor Sprout. "Weren't you saying just last night that you've known all along where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is?"**

**"I — well, I —"sputtered Lockhart.**

"Coward." Several of the students shouted.

**"Yes, didn't you tell me you were sure you knew what was inside it?" piped up Professor Flitwick.**

**"D-did I? I don't recall —"**

**"I certainly remember you saying you were sorry you hadn't had a crack at the monster before Hagrid was arrested," said Snape. "Didn't you say that the whole affair had been bungled, and that you should have been given a free rein from the first?"**

Sophia smirked at Severus raising an eyebrow at him and he simply shrugged and smiled.

**Lockhart stared around at his stony-faced colleagues.**

**"I — I really never — you may have misunderstood —"**

**"We'll leave it to you, then, Gilderoy," said Professor McGonagall. "Tonight will be an excellent time to do it. We'll make sure everyone's out of your way. You'll be able to tackle the monster all by yourself. A free rein at last."**

**Lockhart gazed desperately around him, but nobody came to the rescue. He didn't look remotely handsome anymore. His lip was trembling, and in the absence of his usually toothy grin, he looked weak-chinned and feeble.**

**"V-very well," he said. "I'll — I'll be in my office, getting — getting ready."**

**And he left the room.**

"**Right," said Professor McGonagall, whose nostrils were flared, "that's got him out from under our feet. The Heads of Houses should go and inform their students what has happened. Tell them the Hogwarts Express will take them home first thing tomorrow. Will the rest of you please make sure no students have been left outside their dormitories."**

**The teachers rose and left, one by one.**

**It was probably the worst day of Harry's entire life. **

And that's saying something," whispered Remus sadly, his heart aching.

**He, Ron, Fred, and George sat together in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, unable to say anything to each other. Percy wasn't there. He had gone to send an owl to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then shut himself up in his dormitory.**

**No afternoon ever lasted as long as that one, nor had Gryffindor Tower ever been so crowded, yet so quiet. Near sunset, Fred and George went up to bed, unable to sit there any longer.**

**"She knew something, Harry," said Ron, speaking for the first time since they had entered the wardrobe in the staff room. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't some stupid thing about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was —" Ron rubbed his eyes frantically. "I mean, she was a pure-blood. There can't be any other reason."**

Sophia chuckled at this.

**Harry could see the sun sinking, blood-red, below the skyline. This was the worst he had ever felt. If only there was something they could do. Anything.**

**"Harry" said Ron. "D'you think there's any chance at all she's not — you know —"**

**Harry didn't know what to say. He couldn't see how Ginny could still be alive.**

**"D'you know what?" said Ron, "I think we should go and see Lockhart. **

**Tell him what we know. He's going to try and get into the Chamber. We can tell him where we think it is, and tell him it's a Basilisk in there." **

The students laughed hearing this. Bless them being so young and falling for that idiot mans charm.

**Because Harry couldn't think of anything else to do, and because he wanted to be doing something, he agreed. The Gryffindors around them were so miserable, and felt so sorry for the Weasleys, that nobody tried to stop them as they got up, crossed the room, and left through the portrait hole.**

**Darkness was falling as they walked down to Lockhart's office. There seemed to be a lot of activity going on inside it. They could hear scraping, thumps, and hurried footsteps.**

**Harry knocked and there was a sudden silence from inside. Then the door opened the tiniest crack and they saw one of Lockhart's eyes peering through it.**

**"Oh — Mr. Potter — Mr. Weasley —" he said, opening the door a bit wider. "I'm rather busy at the moment —if you would be quick —"**

**"Professor, we've got some information for you," said Harry. "We think it'll help you."**

**"Er — well — it's not terribly —" The side of Lockhart's face that they could see looked very uncomfortable. "I mean — well — all right —"**

**He opened the door and they entered.**

**His office had been almost completely stripped. Two large trunks stood open on the floor. Robes, jade-green, lilac, midnight blue, had been hastily folded into one of them; books were jumbled untidily into the other. The photographs that had covered the walls were now crammed into boxes on the desk.**

"Bit early for a spring clean don't you think?" Katie Bell ask Alicia quietly who simply laughed in reply.

**"Are you going somewhere?" said Harry.**

**"Er, well, yes," said Lockhart, ripping a life-size poster of himself from the back of the door as he spoke and starting to roll it up. "Urgent call — unavoidable — got to go —"**

**"What about my sister?" said Ron jerkily.**

**"Well, as to that — most unfortunate —" said Lockhart, avoiding their eyes as he wrenched open a drawer and started emptying the contents into a bag. "No one regrets more than I —"**

**"You're the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher!" said Harry. "You can't go now! Not with all the Dark stuff going on here!"**

**"Well — I must say — when I took the job —" Lockhart muttered, now piling socks on top of his robes. "nothing in the job description — didn't expect —"**

**"You mean you're running away?" said Harry disbelievingly. "After all that stuff you did in your books —"**

**"Books can be misleading," said Lockhart delicately.**

"Auror Tonks I hope you are taking notes we will need to start questioning the villagers where these stories take place. There might be illegal memory charms in play." Amelia Bones said frowning in though.

"Yes Ma'am," Tonks said waving her note book happily.

**"You wrote them!" Harry shouted.**

**"My dear boy," said Lockhart, straightening up and frowning at Harry. "Do use your common sense. My books wouldn't have sold half as well if people didn't think I'd done all those things. No one wants to read about some ugly old Armenian warlock, even if he did save a village from werewolves. He'd look dreadful on the front cover. No dress sense at all. **

**And the witch who banished the Bandon Banshee had a harelip. I mean, come on —"**

**"So you've just been taking credit for what a load of other people have done?" said Harry incredulously.**

**"Harry, Harry," said Lockhart, shaking his head impatiently, "it's not nearly as simple as that. There was work involved. I had to track these people down. Ask them exactly how they managed to do what they did. Then I had to put a Memory Charm on them so they wouldn't remember doing it. **

**If there's one thing I pride myself on, it's my Memory Charms. No, it's been a lot of work, Harry. It's not all book signings and publicity photos, you know. You want fame, you have to be prepared for a long hard slog."**

**He banged the lids of his trunks shut and locked them.**

**"Let's see," he said. "I think that's everything. Yes. Only one thing left."**

The mothers in the room began to growled in outrage seeing where this was heading.

**He pulled out his wand and turned to them.**

**"Awfully sorry, boys, but I'll have to put a Memory Charm on you now. Can't have you blabbing my secrets all over the place. I'd never sell another book —"**

"It's a good job that man is in St Mungos or he would be meeting Mooney on a full moon night." Remus growled quietly having an inner battle with his wolf.

**Harry reached his wand just in time. Lockhart had barely raised his, when Harry bellowed, "Expelliarmus!"**

**Lockhart was blasted backward, falling over his trunk; his wand flew high into the air; Ron caught it, and flung it out of the open window.**

**"Shouldn't have let Professor Snape teach us that one," said Harry furiously, kicking Lockhart's trunk aside. Lockhart was looking up at him, feeble once more. Harry was still pointing his wand at him.**

Severus smiled proudly that the boy had actually learnt something from him.

**"What d'you want me to do?" said Lockhart weakly. "I don't know where the Chamber of Secrets is. There's nothing I can do."**

**"You're in luck," said Harry, forcing Lockhart to his feet at wandpoint. "We think we know where it is. And what's inside it. Let's go."**

**They marched Lockhart out of his office and down the nearest stairs, along the dark corridor where the messages shone on the wall, to the door of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.**

**They sent Lockhart in first. Harry was pleased to see that he was shaking.**

**Moaning Myrtle was sitting on the tank of the end toilet.**

**"Oh, it's you," she said when she saw Harry. "What do you want this time?"**

**"To ask you how you died," said Harry.**

**Myrtle's whole aspect changed at once. She looked as though she had never been asked such a flattering question.**

Several of the boys chuckled who saw Harry's face. He was currently wished he had never asked her the girl would not leave him alone. He had to check every corner of the bathroom before he could wash.

**"Ooooh, it was dreadful," she said with relish. "It happened right in here. I died in this very stall. I remember it so well. I'd hidden because Olive Hornby was teasing me about my glasses. The door was locked, and I was crying, and then I heard somebody come in. They said something funny. A different language, I think it must have been. Anyway, what really got me was that it was a boy speaking. So I unlocked the door, to tell him to go and use his own toilet, and then —" Myrtle swelled importantly, her face shining. "I died."**

**"How?" said Harry.**

**"No idea," said Myrtle in hushed tones. "I just remember seeing a pair of great, big, yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away…" She looked dreamily at Harry. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses."**

**"Where exactly did you see the eyes?" said Harry.**

**"Somewhere there," said Myrtle, pointing vaguely toward the sink in front of her toilet.**

**Harry and Ron hurried over to it. Lockhart was standing well back, a look of utter terror on his face.**

**It looked like an ordinary sink. They examined every inch of it, inside and out, including the pipes below. And then Harry saw it: Scratched on the side of one of the copper taps was a tiny snake.**

**"That tap's never worked," said Myrtle brightly as he tried to turn it.**

**"Harry," said Ron. "Say something. Something in Parseltongue."**

**"But —" Harry thought hard. The only times he'd ever managed to speak Parseltongue were when he'd been faced with a real snake. He stared hard at the tiny engraving, trying to imagine it was real.**

**"Open up," he said.**

**He looked at Ron, who shook his head.**

**"English," he said.**

Draco and Neville laughed hearing this and Harry closed his eyes and pouted at the pair. Lune wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. She has been strangely quiet so far. She was struggling to control her emotions with all the positive energy she was receiving.

**Harry looked back at the snake, willing himself to believe it was alive. If he moved his head, the candlelight made it look as though it were moving.**

**"Open up," he said.**

**Except that the words weren't what he heard; a strange hissing had escaped him, and at once the tap glowed with a brilliant white light and began to spin. Next second, the sink began to move; the sink, in fact, sank, right out of sight, leaving a large pipe exposed, a pipe wide enough for a man to slide into.**

**Harry heard Ron gasp and looked up again. He had made up his mind what he was going to do.**

**"I'm going down there," he said.**

Everyone froze muttering no. They knew he would there was still move of the book to go. They were no longer sure if they even wanted to know what happened. These books were getting worse.

Sophia watched Harry she could tell he was begin to relive these memories she sighed softly.

"Harry," Sophia called and opened her arms for him smiling softly. Harry smiled back at her and walked over to her. Sophia wrapped her hands round his waist and pulled him down on to her lap, kissing the top of his head. He curled up against her simply drinking in her scent trying to block out the memories. Sophia rubbed smoothing circles in his back while motioning for Draco to continue. Several people were watching Harry in concern.

**He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive.**

**"Me too," said Ron.**

**There was a pause.**

**"Well, you hardly seem to need me," said Lockhart, with a shadow of his old smile. "I'll just —"**

**He put his hand on the door knob, but Ron and Harry both pointed their wands at him.**

**"You can go first," Ron snarled.**

**White-faced and wandless, Lockhart approached the opening.**

**"Boys," he said, his voice feeble. "Boys, what good will it do?"**

**Harry jabbed him in the back with his wand. Lockhart slid his legs into the pipe.**

**"I really don't think —" he started to say, but Ron gave him a push, and he slid out of sight. Harry followed quickly. He lowered himself slowly into the pipe, then let go.**

**It was like rushing down an endless, slimy, dark slide. He could see more pipes branching off in all directions, but none as large as theirs, which twisted and turned, sloping steeply downward, and he knew that he was falling deeper below the school than even the dungeons. Behind him he could hear Ron, thudding slightly at the curves.**

**And then, just as he had begun to worry about what would happen when he hit the ground, the pipe leveled out, and he shot out of the end with a wet thud, landing on the damp floor of a dark stone tunnel large enough to stand in. Lockhart was getting to his feet a little ways away, covered in slime and white as a ghost. Harry stood aside as Ron came whizzing out of the pipe, too.**

**"We must be miles under the school," said Harry, his voice echoing in the black tunnel.**

**"Under the lake, probably," said Ron, squinting around at the dark, slimy walls.**

**All three of them turned to stare into the darkness ahead.**

Sophia pulled Harry closer to her she knew he was fine but that didn't stop her from continually glancing at him. The poor child has been through so much already.

**"Lumos!" Harry muttered to his wand and it lit again. "C'mon," he said to Ron and Lockhart, and off they went, their footsteps slapping loudly on the wet floor.**

**The tunnel was so dark that they could only see a little distance ahead. Their shadows on the wet walls looked monstrous in the wandlight.**

**"Remember," Harry said quietly as they walked cautiously forward, "any sign of movement, close your eyes right away…"**

**But the tunnel was quiet as the grave, and the first unexpected sound they heard was a loud crunch as Ron stepped on what turned out to be a rat's skull. Harry lowered his wand to look at the floor and saw that it was littered with small animal bones. Trying very hard not to imagine what Ginny might look like if they found her, Harry led the way forward, around a dark bend in the tunnel.**

**"Harry — there's something up there —" said Ron hoarsely, grabbing Harry's shoulder.**

**They froze, watching. Harry could just see the outline of something huge and curved, lying right across the tunnel. It wasn't moving.**

**"Maybe it's asleep," he breathed, glancing back at the other two. Lockhart's hands were pressed over his eyes. Harry turned back to look at the thing, his heart beating so fast it hurt.**

**Very slowly, his eyes as narrow as he could make them and still see, Harry edged forward, his wand held high.**

**The light slid over a gigantic snake skin, of a vivid, poisonous green, lying curled and empty across the tunnel floor. **

**The creature that had shed it must have been twenty feet long at least.**

Severus gasped he would love the get his hands on that skin it would be worth a fortune. He wondered if Harry would let him go down and harvest it.

**"Blimey," said Ron weakly.**

**There was a sudden movement behind them. Gilderoy Lockhart's knees had given way.**

**"Get up," said Ron sharply, pointing his wand at Lockhart.**

**Lockhart got to his feet — then he dived at Ron, knocking him to the ground.**

**Harry jumped forward, but too late — Lockhart was straightening up, panting, Ron's wand in his hand and a gleaming smile back on his face.**

"He's going to perform a Memory Charm now?!" screamed Tonks in outrage. Everyone else was glaring in anger while Sophia merely giggle remember Lockhearts fate.

**"The adventure ends here, boys!" he said. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and that you two tragically lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body — say good-bye to your memories!"**

**He raised Ron's Spellotaped wand high over his head and yelled, "Obliviate!"**

**The wand exploded with the force of a small bomb. Harry flung his arms over his head and ran, slipping over the coils of snake skin, out of the way of great chunks of tunnel ceiling that were thundering to the floor. Next moment, he was standing alone, gazing at a solid wall of broken rock.**

Harry flinched seeing all this in his head. Sophia kissed his forehead softly and began whispering soothing worlds. "Ssshh little man, everything is fine. You are safe. You are loved. Nothing bad will happen to you while I am around." Harry started to relax into her embrace.

Draco watched Harry in concern clearly this was a bad experience for him. He looked at his own mother who pulled him onto her lap before he continued to read.

**"Ron!" he shouted. "Are you okay? Ron!"**

**"I'm here!" came Ron's muffled voice from behind the rockfall. "I'm okay — this git's not, though — he got blasted by the wand —"**

**There was a dull thud and a loud "ow!" It sounded as though Ron had just kicked Lockhart in the shins.**

**"What now?" Ron's voice said, sounding desperate. "We can't get through — it'll take ages…"**

**Harry looked up at the tunnel ceiling. Huge cracks had appeared in it. He had never tried to break apart anything as large as these rocks by magic, and now didn't seem a good moment to try — what if the whole tunnel caved in?**

**There was another thud and another "ow!" from behind the rocks. They were wasting time. Ginny had already been in the Chamber of Secrets for hours… Harry knew there was only one thing to do.**

**"Wait there," he called to Ron. "Wait with Lockhart. I'll go on… If I'm not back in an hour…"**

"Harry James Potter, you should not have gone alone." Remus said shaking his head.

Harry ignored him he was comply distracted by Sophia's hand rubbing circles in his back he was turning into goo sitting here complexly relaxed.

**There was a very pregnant pause, "I'll try and shift some of this rock," said Ron, who seemed to be trying to keep his voice steady. "So you can — can get back through. And, Harry —"**

**"See you in a bit," said Harry, trying to inject some confidence into his shaking voice.**

**And he set off alone past the giant snake skin.**

**Soon the distant noise of Ron straining to shift the rocks was gone. The tunnel turned and turned again. Every nerve in Harry's body was tingling unpleasantly. He wanted the tunnel to end, yet dreaded what he'd find when it did. **

**And then, at last, as he crept around yet another bend, he saw a solid wall ahead on which two entwined serpents were carved, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.**

**Harry approached, his throat very dry. There was no need to pretend these stone snakes were real; their eyes looked strangely alive.**

**He could guess what he had to do. He cleared his throat, and the emerald eyes seemed to flicker.**

**"Open," said Harry, in a low, faint hiss.**

**The serpents parted as the wall cracked open, the halves slid smoothly out of sight, and Harry, shaking from head to foot, walked inside.**

Draco closed the book and softly spoke, "that's the end of the chapter."


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N – Sorry about the wait guys just had no motivation to write anything at all. **

**Reply to review:**

**LM Ryder – Thank you for all your reviews they made me smile. I am taking your suggestions under consideration. I defiantly agree with you regarding school how they believe covering someone's work in red pen is constructive is beyond me. Home school them they would properly be better off.**

**Cassandra30 - Regarding your view. I saw this in another story and I liked the way it went. It's my story and this is the direction I am taking. They will be switched at birth. The Muggles get a child, an orphan gets a loving family and the magic child gets raised in a magic environment. I am sorry if you do not approve but you do not have to read. **

**To everyone else who reviewed thank you for taking the time to do so and I am glad people are liking. **

**Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter this is purely for fun and my own amusement.**

**...**

"I'll read next sweetheart." Mrs Malfoy said carefully taking the book from Draco's slightly shaking hands. She kept him sitting on her lap and wrapped one arm around his stomach soothing him as she began to read.

**Chapter 17: The Heir of Slytherin**

"So this chapter should tell us everything," Arthur stated softly. No one knew what happened that day, no one but Harry that is. Even Ginny who was down there didn't know all the details because she had been unconscious the whole time. He was afraid to

Remus felt as though a part of his heart had stopped beating. Why had this happened to his cub. Why couldn't James and Lilly been here to protect him. Where had everything gone wrong? He shook his head and focused on the book.

**He was standing at the end of a very long, dimly lit chamber. Towering stone pillars entwined with more carved serpents rose to support a ceiling lost in darkness, casting long, black shadows through the odd, greenish gloom that filled the place. His heart beating very fast, Harry stood listening to the chill silence. Could the basilisk be lurking in a shadowy corner, behind a pillar? And where was Ginny?**

**He pulled out his wand **

Moody shook his head. "Boy should've had his wand out already!"

"What do you expect after having a Voldemort possessed psycho, and a lying fraud for his Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers?" Remus asked him. Moody just frowned at him and shrugged

**and moved forward between the serpentine columns. Every careful footstep echoed loudly off the shadowy walls. He kept his eyes narrowed, ready to clamp them shut at the smallest sign of movement. The hollow eye sockets of the stone snakes seemed to be following him. More than once, with a jolt of the stomach, he thought he saw one stir.**

**Then, as he drew level with the last pair of pillars, a statue high as the Chamber itself loomed into view, standing against the back wall.**

**Harry had to crane his neck to look up into the giant face above: It was ancient and monkeyish, with a long, thin beard that fell almost to the bottom of the wizard's sweeping stone robes, where two enormous gray feet stood on the smooth Chamber floor. **

"Somehow I pictured Slytherin to be a little more attractive," Nott whispered to Zabini. "He's a real looker isn't he?" Both boys quietly snickered.

**And between the feet, facedown, lay a small, black-robed figure with flaming-red hair.**

Over at the traitors table Molly had tears down her cheeks as Ginny was staring up at the ceiling shaking slightly.

This are the room didn't know if to feel sorry for her or not.

**"Ginny!" Harry muttered, sprinting to her and dropping to his knees. "Ginny — don't be dead — please don't be dead —" **

Harry began shaking in Sophia's arms. He was picturing this take place in his head.

"Sweety sshh its ok you are safe you are not there." Sophia said pulling him close rocking slowly and kissing his head.

**He flung his wand aside, **

"No," several people could be heard saying around the room.

Neville, Draco and Luna all looked at Harry wide eyed in horror.

**grabbed Ginny's shoulders, and turned her over. Her face was white as marble, and as cold, yet her eyes were closed, so she wasn't Petrified. But then she must be…**

**"Ginny, please wake up," Harry muttered desperately, shaking her. Ginny's head lolled hopelessly from side to side.**

**"She won't wake," said a soft voice.**

"Who's talking now?!" demanded Tonks, looking scared.

**Harry jumped and spun around on his knees.**

**A tall, black-haired boy was leaning against the nearest pillar, watching. He was strangely blurred around the edges, as though Harry were looking at him through a misted window. But there was no mistaking him.**

**"Tom — Tom Riddle?"**

"What?!" Remus cried out hysterically.

**Riddle nodded, not taking his eyes off Harry's face.**

**"What d'you mean, she won't wake?" Harry said desperately. "She's not — she's not —?"**

**"She's still alive," said Riddle. "But only just."**

**Harry stared at him. Tom Riddle had been at Hogwarts fifty years ago, yet here he stood, a weird, misty light shining about him, not a day older than sixteen.**

"How is that possible?" Tonks asked slowly looking to Remus. "Have you ever heard of anything like this?"

He shrugged. "No. I mean, at first it sounds like a memory… if it looks like someone did half a century ago… but memories are supposed to be just… memories. They aren't supposed to talk back to us. No, this is something much more powerful, and much more dangerous."

"Thats because it is..." Sophia muttered glaring at the ceiling.

**"Are you a ghost?" Harry said uncertainly.**

**"A memory," said Riddle quietly. "Preserved in a diary for fifty years."**

**He pointed toward the floor near the statue's giant toes. Lying open there was the little black diary Harry had found in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. For a second, Harry wondered how it had got there — but there were more pressing matters to deal with.**

"Exactly, grab Ginny, get your wand, and get out of there before he calls the Basilisk!" cried out Susan Bones finally in a terrified tone. She was gripping on to her friend Hannah so engrossed in the story "

**"You've got to help me, Tom," Harry said, raising Ginny's head again. "We've got to get her out of here. There's a basilisk… I don't know where it is, but it could be along any moment… Please, help me."**

**Riddle didn't move. Harry, sweating, managed to hoist Ginny half off the floor, and bent to pick up his wand again.**

**But his wand had gone.**

"NO!" Tonks yelled out as Remus turned whiter than paper.

"He didn't…" cried Minerva.

"Idiot," whispered Severus shaking his head. Sophia punched him in the arm and glared at him.

"Sorry old habit." Severus muttered looking sheepish. Sophia shook her head at him and went back to soothing Harry.

**"Did you see —?"**

**He looked up. Riddle was still watching him — twirling Harry's wand between his long fingers.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, stretching out his hand for it.**

"Harry, he's not going to give it to!" Tonks yelled. "Think about it! He took your wand! He's not planning on giving it back!"

**A smile curled the corners of Riddle's mouth. He continued to stare at Harry, twirling the wand idly.**

**"Listen," said Harry urgently, his knees sagging with Ginny's dead weight. **

**"We've got to go! If the basilisk comes —"**

**"It won't come until it is called," said Riddle calmly.**

**Harry lowered Ginny back onto the floor, unable to hold her up any longer.**

**"What d'you mean?" he said. "Look, give me my wand, I might need it —"**

**Riddle's smile broadened.**

**"You won't be needing it," he said.**

**Harry stared at him.**

**"What d'you mean, I won't be —?"**

**"I've waited a long time for this, Harry Potter," said Riddle. "For the chance to see you. To speak to you."**

Several people began to frown at this..

**"Look," said Harry, losing patience, "I don't think you get it. We're in the Chamber of Secrets. We can talk later —"**

**"We're going to talk now," said Riddle, still smiling broadly, and he pocketed Harry's wand.**

**Harry stared at him. There was something very funny going on here…**

"Finally" Several of the Slytherin's muttered but soon hushed when the rest of the hall glared at them.

**"How did Ginny get like this?" he asked slowly.**

**"Well, that's an interesting question," said Riddle pleasantly. "And quite a long story. I suppose the real reason Ginny Weasley's like this is because she opened her heart and spilled all her secrets to an invisible stranger."**

"That damn diary!" Arthur yelled out in a broken voice. His sons wrapped their arms around him trying to comfort him.

**"What are you talking about?" said Harry.**

**"The diary," said Riddle. "My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months and months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes — how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with secondhand robes and books, how —" Riddle's eyes glinted "— how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her…"**

**All the time he spoke, Riddle's eyes never left Harry's face. There was an almost hungry look in them.**

**"It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl," he went on. **

**"But I was patient. I wrote back. I was sympathetic, I was kind. Ginny simply loved me. No one's ever understood me like you, Tom… I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in… It's like having a friend I can carry around in my pocket…"**

The women were all crying at what this poor girl had gone through. For merlin sake she was 11.

**Riddle laughed, a high, cold laugh that didn't suit him. It made the hairs stand up on the back of Harry's neck.**

Everyone shivered at that description.

**"If I say it myself, Harry, I've always been able to charm the people I needed. **

"So true," Dumbledore sighed but no one was paying him any attention.

**So Ginny poured out her soul to me, and her soul happened to be exactly what I wanted…** **I grew stronger and stronger on a diet of her deepest fears, her darkest secrets. I grew powerful, far more powerful than little Miss Weasley. Powerful enough to start feeding Miss Weasley a few of my secrets, to start pouring a little of my soul back into her…"**

**"What d'you mean?" said Harry, whose mouth had gone very dry.**

**"Haven't you guessed yet, Harry Potter?" said Riddle softly. "Ginny Weasley opened the Chamber of Secrets. She strangled the school roosters and daubed threatening messages on the walls. She set the Serpent of Slytherin on four Mudbloods, and the Squib's cat."**

Heads in the great hall snapped and glared at the girl. She was a pureblood for Christ sake she should have known better. You never trusted something that can think for itself.

**"No," Harry whispered.**

**"Yes," said Riddle, calmly. "Of course, she didn't know what she was doing at first.** **It was very amusing. **

"This… is disgusting," Tonks snarled out. Remus gripped her shoulder.

**I wish you could have seen her new diary entries… far more interesting, they became… Dear Tom," he recited, watching Harry's horrified face, "'I think I'm losing my memory. There are rooster feathers all over my robes and I don't know how they got there. Dear Tom, I can't remember what I did on the night of Halloween, but a cat was attacked and I've got paint all down my front. Dear Tom, Percy keeps telling me I'm pale and I'm not myself. I think he suspects me… There was another attack today and I don't know where I was. Tom, what am I going to do? I think I'm going mad… I think I'm the one attacking everyone, Tom!'"**

**Harry's fists were clenched, the nails digging deep into his palms.**

**"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary," said Riddle. "But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. **

**And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet…"**

Sophia sighed.

"I'm sorry." Harry mumbled quietly. Severus turned and frowned at him and spoke before Sophia could.

"Potter this is not your fault you were a 12 year old boy. You should never have even been involved. Do not blame yourself for this you did nothing wrong." Severus said paused when Harry looked at him in shock and nodded slightly and wiped his face with his sleeves and sniffing. Sophia beamed at him she was so proud of Severus right now. Severus was shocked he had comforted the Potter boy.

**"And why did you want to meet me?" said Harry. Anger was coursing through him, and it was an effort to keep his voice steady.**

**"Well, you see, Ginny told me all about you, Harry," said Riddle. "Your whole fascinating history." His eyes roved over the lightning scar on Harry's forehead, and their expression grew hungrier. **

"He's really creeping me out," Tonks shuttered thinking of those eyes.

**"I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust —"**

**"Hagrid's my friend," said Harry, his voice now shaking. "And you framed him, didn't you? I thought you made a mistake, but —"**

**Riddle laughed his high laugh again.**

**"It was my word against Hagrid's, Harry. Well, you can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. On the one hand, Tom Riddle, poor but brilliant, parentless but so brave, school prefect, model student… on the other hand, big, blundering Hagrid, in trouble every other week, trying to raise werewolf cubs under his bed, sneaking off to the Forbidden Forest to wrestle trolls… but I admit, even I was surprised how well the plan worked.**

Hagrid growled hearing this. The students, staff and guests looked at in sympathy. Madam Bones made a note of paying for Hagrid to finish his education.

**I thought someone must realize that Hagrid couldn't possibly be the Heir of Slytherin. It had taken me five whole years to find out everything I could about the Chamber of Secrets and discover the secret entrance… as though Hagrid had the brains, or the power!**

"Hagrid's got both," Harry growled furiously.

Hagrid blushed and beamed at him.

**"Only the Transfiguration teacher, Dumbledore, seemed to think Hagrid was innocent.**

**He persuaded Dippet to keep Hagrid and train him as gamekeeper. Yes, I think Dumbledore might have guessed… Dumbledore never seemed to like me as much as the other teachers did…"**

Sophia glared at Dumbledore. He was the reason Tom Riddle turned out as he did. A little love and family would have fixed him instead he was neglected.

**"I bet Dumbledore saw right through you," said Harry, his teeth gritted.**

**"Well, he certainly kept an annoyingly close watch on me after Hagrid was expelled," said Riddle carelessly. "I knew it wouldn't be safe to open the Chamber again while I was still at school. But I wasn't going to waste those long years I'd spent searching for it. I decided to leave behind a diary, preserving my sixteen-year-old self in its pages, so that one day, with luck, I would be able to lead another in my footsteps, and finish Salazar Slytherin's noble work."**

"Noble? Noble?" repeated Arthur in disgust. "How can it be noble? Evil's a better word if you ask me!"

**"Well, you haven't finished it," said Harry triumphantly. "No one's died this time, not even the cat. In a few hours the Mandrake Draught will be ready and everyone who was Petrified will be all right again —"**

**"Haven't I already told you," said Riddle quietly, "that killing Mudbloods doesn't matter to me anymore? **

**For many months now, my new target has been - **_**you**_**." **

Gasps were heard around the room. Draco was curled up against his mother trying to contain his tears. Neville and Luna were hugging each other both to afraid to move. They new Harry was alive he was sitting there.

"Harry, Harry.. listen to me." Sophia said voice rising slightly. "You are not there. You are hear in the great hall. Just calm down sweetie." She began rubbing circled in his back and running another along his forehead. She heard him take a deep breath and sniff. Severus was watching him sadly he really had miss judged the boy and was feeling awful.

Snufffles gave a whimper and moved closer to Remus who was stroking him trying to contain his own emotions.

**Harry stared at him.**

**"Imagine how angry I was when the next time my diary was opened, it was Ginny who was writing to me, not you. She saw you with the diary, you see, and panicked. What if you found out how to work it, and I repeated all her secrets to you? What if, even worse, I told you who'd been strangling roosters? **

"She must've been scared stiff when she saw Harry with it," Tonks said shaking her head sadly.. "So she stole it back so that he wouldn't find out what had happened."

**So the foolish little brat waited until your dormitory was deserted and stole it back. But I knew what I must do. It was clear to me that you were on the trail of Slytherin's heir. From everything Ginny had told me about you, I knew you would go to any lengths to solve the mystery — particularly if one of your best friends was attacked. **

"So that's why he went after Hermione!" Tonks and Minerva yelled out in outrage.

Hermione paled and glared at Harry it was all his fault everything. God did she hate him.

**And Ginny had told me the whole school was buzzing because you could speak Parseltongue…**

**"So I made Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down here to wait. She struggled and cried and became very boring. **

**But there isn't much life left in her… She put too much into the diary, into me. **

Arthur let out a sob and the boys weren't doing any better. This was their baby sister.

**Enough to let me leave its pages at last… I have been waiting for you to appear since we arrived here. I knew you'd come. I have many questions for you, Harry Potter."**

**"Like what?" Harry spat, fists still clenched.**

**"Well," said Riddle, smiling pleasantly, "how is it that you — a skinny boy with no extraordinary magical talent managed to defeat the greatest wizard of all time? How did you escape with nothing but a scar, while Lord Voldemort's powers were destroyed?"**

Many people looked over at Harry. They too wanted to know the answer to this question... how did a baby survive when so many others had died.

**There was an odd red gleam in his hungry eyes now.**

**"Why do you care how I escaped?" said Harry slowly. "Voldemort was after your time…"**

Frowns were seen all around the room.

**"Voldemort," said Riddle softly, "is my past, present, and future, Harry Potter…"**

**He pulled Harry's wand from his pocket and began to trace it through the air, writing three shimmering words:**

**TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE**

**Then he waved the wand once, and the letters of his name rearranged themselves:**

**I AM LORD VOLDEMORT**

Arthur's pale face went even whiter. Several people screamed hearing the Dark Lords name. Mrs Malfoy was remaining remarkable composed on the inside she was shaking. She never wanted to join him she just wanted to look after her family. She looked up at Sophia and frowned when she looked back and smiled slightly and nodded. Had she heard what she was thinking.

**"You see?" he whispered. "It was a name I was already using at Hogwarts, to my most intimate friends only, of course. **

"What friends?" Bill could help but butt in, "Didn't he mean servants?"

**You think I was going to use my filthy Muggle father's name forever? I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin himself, through my mother's side?**

"I can't believe that the world's biggest pureblood supremist is only a Half-blood!" Tonks exclaimed in disgust.

"THE DARK LORD IS A HALF BLOOD". The Slytherin students shouted in outrage and those who's parents were in the room turned to glare at them. They were staring at the book equally as shocked.

**I, keep the name of a foul, common Muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, Harry — I fashioned myself a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"**

"He's not even close," Minerva said darkly. "I know for a fact that there are hundreds of witches and wizard that are far greater than he could ever hope to be."

**Harry's brain seemed to have jammed. He stared numbly at Riddle, at the orphaned boy who had grown up to murder Harry's own parents, and so many others… At last he forced himself to speak.**

**"You're not," he said, his quiet voice full of hatred.**

"You tell him, Harry," Fred and George shouted and smiled at Harry.

**"Not what?" snapped Riddle.**

**"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world," said Harry, breathing fast. "Sorry to disappoint you and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore.**

Sophia burst out laughing. Severus had to lift Harry off her lap an onto his when he notice her quickly jump up. She had tears rolling down her cheeks. She was reminding the adults of a crazed Bellatrix Lestrange. They shived.

"Oh god that is funny. His power rating is only average compared to the rest of the wizarding world and he is simply and old fall." Sophia wiped her eyes sent a powerful stinging hex at Dumbledore and smirked when he screamed.

Sophia turned sitting down and stared at Severus opened mouth. Harry was curled up against him laughing quietly watching Sophia. He had an arm wrapped around Harrys waist watching her.

**Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over at Hogwarts. **

**Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days —"**

**The smile had gone from Riddle's face, to be replaced by a very ugly look.**

"Potter's going to pay for that," Severus muttered so quietly that only Sophia heard. She gripped his hand softly and frowned watching Harry who flinched remembering that look.

**"Dumbledore's been driven out of this castle by the mere memory of me!" he hissed.**

**"He's not as gone as you might think!" Harry retorted. He was speaking at random, wanting to scare Riddle, wishing rather than believing it to be opened his mouth, but froze.**

**Music was coming from somewhere. **

Sophia smiled when Fawkes flashed in to the room and landed behind Sophia perching on her chair and began to play the same music.

**Riddle whirled around to stare down the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie, spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Harry felt it vibrating inside his own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the nearest pillar. A crimson bird the size of a swan had appeared, piping its weird music to the vaulted ceiling.**

"Woo yay Fawkes." Fred shouted.

**It had a glittering golden tail as long as a peacock's and gleaming golden talons, which were gripping a ragged bundle.**

**A second later, the bird was flying straight at Harry. It dropped the ragged thing it was carrying at his feet, then landed heavily on his shoulder. As it folded its great wings, Harry looked up and saw it had a long, sharp golden beak and a beady black bird stopped singing. It sat still and warm next to Harry's cheek, gazing steadily at Riddle.**

**"That's a phoenix." said Riddle, staring shrewdly back at it.**

"No," George said mockingly. "Really? I had no idea!"

Fred burst out laughing slapping his brother on the back.

**"Fawkes?" Harry breathed, and he felt the bird's golden claws squeeze his shoulder gently.**

**"And that —" said Riddle, now eyeing the ragged thing that Fawkes had dropped, **

"What is it?" Remus asked, leaning in—expecting something truly spectacular to protect Harry.

**"that's the old school Sorting Hat —"**

"Huh?" most cried out in disbelief.

**So it was. Patched, frayed, and dirty, the hat lay motionless at Harry's feet.**

**Riddle began to laugh again. He laughed so hard that the dark chamber rang with it, as though ten Riddles were laughing at once.**

The half shivered as one thinking about more than one Riddle.

**"This is what Dumbledore sends his defender! A songbird and an old hat!**

**Do you feel brave, Harry Potter? Do you feel safe now?"**

**Harry didn't answer. He might not see what use Fawkes or the Sorting Hat were, but he was no longer alone, and he waited for Riddle to stop laughing with his courage mounting.**

**"To business, Harry," said Riddle, still smiling broadly. "Twice — in your past, in my future — we have met. And twice I failed to kill you. How did you survive? Tell me everything. The longer you talk," he added softly, "the longer you stay alive."**

**Harry was thinking fast, weighing his chances. Riddle had the wand. He, Harry, had Fawkes and the Sorting Hat,** **neither of which would be much good in a duel. It looked bad, all right… but the longer Riddle stood there, the more life was dwindling out of Ginny… **

"Doesn't he care about himself at all?" Severus asked incredulously completly forgetting Harry was on his lap.

"Of course I do sir I just care about other people more." Harry said quietly and shifted so he was sitting back on Sophia's lap he rested his head against her chest and closed his eyes simply listen to her breathing. It was relaxing him.

Severus sighed and run a head through his hair.

**and in the meantime, Harry noticed suddenly, Riddle's outline was becoming clearer, more solid… If it had to be a fight between him and Riddle, better sooner than later.**

**"No one knows why you lost your powers when you attacked me," said Harry abruptly. "I don't know myself. But I know why you couldn't kill me. Because my mother died to save me. **

_'She did what any real mother would have done,' _the mothers in the room thought looking at their children sadly. They would give their own lives without a second thought to protect the ones they loved.

**My common Muggle-born mother," he added,**

"That'll make him angry," Severus muttered

**shaking with suppressed rage. "She stopped you killing me. And I've seen the real you, I saw you last year. You're a wreck. You're barely alive. That's where all your power got you. You're in hiding. You're ugly, you're foul —"**

"Harry," Remus whispered worriedly. "Taunting him may not be the best idea right now you know?"

"At least the kid's showing some backbone," Kingsley muttered quietly to him.

**Riddle's face contorted. Then he forced it into an awful smile. "So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that's a powerful countercharm. I can see now… there is nothing special about you, after all.**

**I wondered, you see. There are strange likenesses between us, **

"No there isn't!" Fred and George snarled furiously standing up and glaring at the book.

**after all. Even you must have noticed. Both half-bloods, orphans, raised by Muggles. Probably the only two Parselmouths to come to Hogwarts since the great Slytherin himself. We even look something alike…**

Several people looked at Harry frowning they did have a lot in common but were just so opposite.

**but after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. That's all I wanted to know."**

**Harry stood, tense, waiting for Riddle to raise his wand. But Riddle's twisted smile was widening again.**

**"Now, Harry, I'm going to teach you a little lesson. Let's match the powers of Lord Voldemort, Heir of Salazar Slytherin, against famous Harry Potter, and the best weapons Dumbledore can give him…"**

**He cast an amused eye over Fawkes and the Sorting Hat, then walked away. Harry, fear spreading up his numb legs, watched Riddle stop between the high pillars and look up into the stone face of Slytherin, high above him in the half-darkness. Riddle opened his mouth wide and hissed but Harry understood what he was saying…**

**"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four."**

Everyone in the room snorted at this even the Slytherin's.

**Harry wheeled around to look up at the statue, Fawkes swaying on his shoulder.**

**Slytherin's gigantic stone face was moving. Horrorstruck, Harry saw his mouth opening, wider and wider, to make a huge black something was stirring inside the statue's mouth. Something was slithering up from its depths.**

"Why am I suddenly reminded of the Dark Mark?" Kingsley asked, thinking of the Death Eaters symbol.

"This must be where Voldemort got the idea," Moody stated thoughfully.

**Harry backed away until he hit the dark Chamber wall, and as he shut his eyes tight **

**he felt Fawkes' wing sweep his cheek as he took flight. Harry wanted to shout, "Don't leave me!" but what chance did a phoenix have against the king of serpents?**

**Something huge hit the stone floor of the Chamber. Harry felt it shudder — he knew what was happening, he could sense it, could almost see the giant serpent uncoiling itself from Slytherin's mouth. Then he heard Riddle's hissing voice:**

**"Kill him."**

"NO!" most of them couldn't help but yell out, forgetting that it was a book once again.

**The basilisk was moving toward Harry; he could hear its heavy body slithering heavily across the dusty floor. Eyes still tightly shut, Harry began to run blindly sideways, his hands outstretched, feeling his way — Voldemort was laughing.**

"Of course he would," Moody said harshly. "He would love the idea that his enemy was powerless and helpless in his presence. That no one could hope to stand in his way."

Tonks and Remus were glaring at the book along with everyone as in the room.

**Harry tripped. He fell hard onto the stone and tasted blood the serpent was barely feet from him, he could hear it coming.**

"No," whispered Remus, not tearing his horrified expressions from the book. Snuffled got up and bound over to sit at Sophia's feet to be closer to Harry.

Sophia shifted so she was leaning against Severus she closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing. Her poor Harry. She had her arms wrapped tightly around him. Severus frowned and pulled them both closer to him and rubbed soothing circled into her lower back. He could tell this was affecting her more than she wanted to admit.

**There was a loud, explosive spitting sound right above him, and then something heavy hit Harry so hard that he was smashed into the wall. Waiting for fangs to sink through his body he heard more mad hissing, something thrashing wildly off the pillars.**

"Now what?!" Tonks gasped, squeezing Remus's hand so tightly that he was losing  
feeling in his fingers. Not that he noticed.

**He couldn't help it — he opened his eyes wide enough to squint at what was going on.**

**The enormous serpent, bright, poisonous green, thick as an oak trunk, had raised itself high in the air and its great blunt head was weaving drunkenly between the pillars. As Harry trembled, ready to close his eyes if it turned, he saw what had distracted the snake. Fawkes was soaring around its head, and the basilisk was snapping furiously at him with fangs long and thin as sabers Fawkes dived. His long golden beak sank out of sight and a sudden shower of dark blood spattered the floor. **

"Go Fawkes!" Luna cried out, hope rising once again. "Go for the eyes!"

"Now Harry will be able to see what's going on!" Neville cried out eagerly.

**The snake's tail thrashed, narrowly missing Harry, and before Harry could shut his eyes, it turned — Harry looked straight into its face and saw that its eyes, both its great, bulbous yellow eyes, had been punctured by the phoenix; blood was streaming to the floor, and the snake was spitting in agony.**

The room let out a sigh of relief they did not know they were holding.

**"NO!" Harry heard Riddle screaming. "LEAVE THE BIRD! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. YOU CAN STILL SMELL HIM. KILL HIM!"**

**The blinded serpent swayed, confused, still deadly. Fawkes was circling its head, piping his eerie song, jabbing here and there at its scaly nose as the blood poured from its ruined eyes.**

**"Help me, help me," Harry muttered wildly, "someone — anyone…"**

Those words felt like someone was squeezing Sirius's heart tightly. He whimpered the guilt of abandoning his godson was truly sinking in. He had promised James and Lilly he would protect him. He had broken that promise.

**"The snake's tail whipped across the floor again. Harry ducked. Something soft hit his basilisk had swept the Sorting Hat into Harry's arms.**

**Harry seized it. It was all he had left, his only chance he rammed it onto his head and threw himself flat onto the floor as the basilisk's tail swung over him again.**

**Help me — help me — Harry thought, his eyes screwed tight under the hat. Please help me.**

**There was no answering voice. Instead, the hat contracted, as though an invisible hand was squeezing it very tightly.**

**Something very hard and heavy thudded onto the top of Harry's head, almost knocking him out. Stars winking in front of his eyes, he grabbed the top of the hat to pull it off and felt something long and hard beneath it.**

**A gleaming silver sword had appeared inside the hat, its handle glittering with rubies the size of eggs.**

Everyone was now grinning Harry would be able to protect himself.

**"KILL THE BOY! LEAVE THE BIRD! THE BOY IS BEHIND YOU. SNIFF — SMELL HIM."**

Severus was breathing deeply he could not believed the rumours were true. He glanced down at the boy fearfully. Sophia grasped his free hand in hears he was the tears pooled in her eyes. He wanted to lean down and kiss her but this was wrong. He snapped at himself to pay attention.

**Harry was on his feet, ready. The basilisk's head was falling, its body coiling around, hitting pillars as it twisted to face him. He could see the vast, bloody eye sockets, see the mouth stretching wide, wide enough to swallow him whole, lined with fangs long as his sword, thin, glittering, venomous. It lunged blindly,**

Everyone tensed. This was it…

**Harry dodged and it hit the Chamber wall. It lunged again, and its forked tongue lashed Harry's side. He raised the sword in both his hands —The basilisk lunged again, and this time its aim was true — Harry threw his whole weight behind the sword and drove it to the hilt into the roof of the serpent's mouth.**

Clears when up around the room. Everyone turned to Harry and began clapping him. Harry blushed furiously and turned and buried his head in Sophia trying to hide. She chuckled at him and ruffled his hair.

"He did it?" Severus choked out. "He really did it?"

"Yes, Severus," Minerva smiled. "Maybe you need to give Potter a little more credit?"

Severus just frowned and looked away.

**But as warm blood drenched Harry's arms, he felt a searing pain just above his elbow. One long, poisonous fang was sinking deeper and deeper into his arm **

All the happiness and joy in the room had vanished at those words. There was no way that it could be true. "No..."

**and it splintered as the basilisk keeled over sideways and fell, twitching, to the floor.**

Snape was gripping the side of his chair so tightly his knuckles were as white as his face, and he didn't have the slightest clue to why he was feeling so anxious. What was the matter with him?

"No!" Tonks cried, her eyes opening wide, and everyone looked either shocked or horrified.

"Basilisk venom is deadly," Moody mumbled, staring in shock at the book. Not having the slightest clue to how Potter could've survived a Basilisk fang.

Everyone was just staring at Harry open mouthed. He looked so tiny curled up against Sophia.

**Harry slid down the wall. He gripped the fang that was spreading poison through his body and wrenched it out of his arm. But he knew it was too late. White-hot pain was spreading slowly and steadily from the wound. Even as he dropped the fang and watched his own blood soaking his robes, his vision went foggy. The Chamber was dissolving in a whirl of dull color. **

"Oh, Harry," sighed Mr Weasley sighed tears running down his cheeks as he tried to comfort the twins.

Tonks clung onto Remus's arm. She was crying along with the majority of the room.

Snuffles let out a long painful moan hearing this.

**A patch of scarlet swam past, and Harry heard a soft clatter of claws beside him.**

"**Fawkes," said Harry thickly. "You were fantastic, Fawkes…"**

**He felt the bird lay its beautiful head on the spot where the serpent's fang had pierced him**. **He could hear echoing footsteps and then a dark shadow moved in front of him.**

**"You're dead, Harry Potter," said Riddle's voice above him. "Dead. Even Dumbledore's bird knows it. Do you see what he's doing, Potter? He's crying."**

**Harry blinked. Fawke's head slid in and out of focus. Thick, pearly tears were trickling down the glossy feathers.**

**"I'm going to sit here and watch you die, Harry Potter. Take your time. I'm in no hurry."**

**Harry felt drowsy. Everything around him seemed to be spinning.**

**"So ends the famous Harry Potter," said Riddle's distant voice. "Alone in the Chamber of Secrets, forsaken by his friends, defeated at last by the Dark Lord he so unwisely challenged. **

**"You'll be back with your dear Mudblood mother soon, Harry… **

"Don't you dare call Lily that," Remus, Poppy, and Minerva hollered with a hard glare. After all, she was the one who stopped him dead in his tracks. The mother and son who were able to defeat him every time and he still continues to underestimate them. He never learns…

**She bought you twelve years of borrowed time… but Lord Voldemort got you in the end, as you knew he must…"**

**If this is dying, thought Harry, it's not so the pain was leaving him…**

Snuffles jumped up and licked fawkes trying to show his gratitude. The hall laughed quietly seeing Fawkes glares at him.

**But was this dying? Instead of going black, the Chamber seemed to be coming back into focus. Harry gave his head a little shake and there was Fawkes, still resting his head on Harry's arm. A pearly patch of tears was shining all around the wound —except that there was no wound.**

**"Get away, bird," said Riddle's voice suddenly. "Get away from him — I said, get away —"**

**Harry raised his head. Riddle was pointing Harry's wand at Fawkes; there was a bang like a gun, and Fawkes took flight again in a whirl of gold and scarlet.**

**"Phoenix tears…" said Riddle quietly, staring at Harry's arm. "Of course… healing powers… I forgot…"**

"Thank god." Tonk muttered releasing the painful hold she had on Remus.

**He looked into Harry's face. "But it makes no difference. In fact, I prefer it this way. Just you and me, Harry Potter… you and me…"**

**He raised the wand…**

**Then, in a rush of wings, Fawkes had soared back overhead and something fell into Harry's lap — the diary.**

**For a split second, both Harry and Riddle, wand still raised, stared at it. Then, without thinking, without considering, as though he had meant to do it all along, Harry seized the basilisk fang on the floor next to him and plunged it straight into the heart of the book.**

"You go boy!" Tonks cheered, ready for something good to happen, "Things are looking up!"

**There was a long, dreadful, piercing scream. Ink spurted out of the diary in torrents, streaming over Harry's hands, flooding the floor. Riddle was writhing and twisting, screaming and flailing and then —He had gone. **

**Harry's wand fell to the floor with a clatter and there was silence. Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary. The basilisk venom had burned a sizzling hole right through it.**

"And good riddance!" Arthur shouted. Others fell back in their seats. The only thing that they've been doing all day was read a book, and yet they were all exhausted. Who knew reading could make you go through so many emotions.

**Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up. His head was spinning as though he'd just traveled miles by Floo powder. Slowly, he gathered together his wand and the Sorting Hat, and, with a huge tug, retrieved the glittering sword from the roof of the basilisk's mouth.**

**Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring.**

**As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.**

**"Harry — oh, Harry — I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn't say it in front of Percy — it was me, Harry — but I — I s-swear I d-didn't mean to — R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over — and — how did you kill that — that thing? W-where's Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary —"**

Ginny was looking so pale her hands grasped together tightly under the table

**"It's all right," said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, "Riddle's finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C'mon, Ginny, let's get out of here —"**

"Best idea I heard all book!" Tonks called out and everyone nodded.

**"I'm going to be expelled!" Ginny wept as Harry helped her awkwardly to her feet. **

"Not for something that someone else forced her to do," Minerva said glaring at the book.

"**"I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and — w-what'll Mum and Dad say?"**

**Fawkes was waiting for them, hovering in the Chamber entrance. Harry urged Ginny forward; they stepped over the motionless coils of the dead basilisk, through the echoing gloom, and back into the tunnel. Harry heard the stone doors close behind them with a soft hiss.**

**After a few minutes' progress up the dark tunnel, a distant sound of slowly shifting rock reached Harry's ears.**

**"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up. "Ginny's okay! I've got her!"**

**He heard Ron give a strangled cheer, and they turned the next bend to see his eager face staring through the sizable gap he had managed to make in the rock fall.**

**"Ginny!" Ron thrust an arm through the gap in the rock to pull her through first. "You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened? How — what — where did that bird come from?"**

"That must have been odd, when he went into the chamber he was alone, then he comes out with ginny, a phoenix, the Sorting Hat, and a sword," Bill laughed.

**Fawkes had swooped through the gap after Ginny.**

**"He's Dumbledore's," said Harry, squeezing through himself.**

**"How come you've got a sword?" said Ron, gaping at the glittering weapon in Harry's hand.**

"Oh just did a bit of shopping while I was in there." Charlie replied smoothly and those closed to him laughed.

**"I'll explain when we get out of here," said Harry with a sideways glance at Ginny, who was crying harder than ever.**

**"But —"**

**"Later," Harry said shortly. He didn't think it was a good idea to tell Ron yet who'd been opening the Chamber, not in front of Ginny, anyway. **

"I'm glad to see that Harry has some tact at least," Minerva said rolling her eyes.

**"Where's Lockhart?"**

"Oh, I forgot about that git!" Bill roared with laughter. Most leaned in, wanting to hear what happened to him.

**"Back there," said Ron, still looking puzzled but jerking his head up the tunnel toward the pipe. "He's in a bad way. Come and see."**

**Led by Fawkes, whose wide scarlet wings emitted a soft golden glow in the darkness, they walked all the way back to the mouth of the pipe. Gilderoy Lockhart was sitting there, humming placidly to himself.**

**"His memory's gone," said Ron. "The Memory Charm backfired. Hit him instead of us. Hasn't got a clue who he is, or where he is, or who we are. I told him to come and wait here. He's a danger to himself."**

"But the important question is can he still smile and sign autographs?" asked Tonks in mock seriousness. "If so then maybe no one will notice a difference?"

No one could help themselves. They all burst out laughing, and for a long time, they couldn't stop.

**Lockhart peered good-naturedly up at them all.**

**"Hello," he said. "Odd sort of place, this, isn't it? Do you live here?"**

**"No," said Ron, raising his eyebrows at Harry.**

**Harry bent down and looked up the long, dark pipe.**

**"Have you thought how we're going to get back up this?" he said to Ron.**

**Ron shook his head, but Fawkes the phoenix had swooped past Harry and was now fluttering in front of him, his beady eyes bright in the dark. He was waving his long golden tail feathers. Harry looked uncertainly at him.**

**"He looks like he wants you to grab hold…" said Ron, looking perplexed. "But you're much too heavy for a bird to pull up there —"**

**"Fawkes," said Harry, "isn't an ordinary bird." He turned quickly to the others. "We've got to hold on to each other. Ginny, grab Ron's hand. Professor Lockhart —"**

**"He means you," said Ron sharply to Lockhart.**

They all chuckled at that. They were beginning to like this new Lockhart.

**"You hold Ginny's other hand —"**

**Harry tucked the sword and the Sorting Hat into his belt, Ron took hold of the back of Harry's robes, and Harry reached out and took hold of Fawkes's strangely hot tail feathers.**

**An extraordinary lightness seemed to spread through his whole body and the next second, in a rush of wings, they were flying upward through the pipe. Harry could hear Lockhart dangling below him, saying, "Amazing! Amazing! This is just like magic!" **

"Wow!" Tonks said sarcastic. "Really? Like real magic? No…"

**The chill air was whipping through Harry's hair, and before he'd stopped enjoying the ride, it was over — all four of them were hitting the wet floor of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, and as Lockhart straightened his hat, the sink that hid the pipe was sliding back into place.**

**Myrtle goggled at them.**

"Of course she would," Remus said. "She thought for sure that they were never coming back out."

"Aww and she lost the chance of sharing a toilet with our Harrykins." Fred cooed.

George shook his head sadly at his brother. That was just lame.

**"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.**

**"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.**

**"Oh, well… I'd just been thinking… if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.**

**"Urgh!" said Ron as they left the bathroom for the dark, deserted corridor outside. "Harry! I think Myrtle's grown fond of you! You've got competition, Ginny!"But tears were still flooding silently down Ginny's face.**

**"Where now?" said Ron, with an anxious look at Ginny. Harry pointed.**

**Fawkes was leading the way, glowing gold along the corridor. They strode after him,** **and moments later, found themselves outside Professor McGonagall's office**. **Harry knocked and pushed the door open.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Mrs Malfoy said looking up frowning.

"I suggest we all take a quick break to collect ourselves and have some dinner." Sophia spoke before turning her attention back to Harry who was sitting staring straight ahead.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N - hello all brand new chapter for you. Sorry about the wait just had no motivation to write anything lately. Struggling to find a new job. So here it is hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer – Do not own Harry Potter or its world this is just for fun.

Sophia gently shifted Harry so he was sitting on his own seat. She was growing concerned now, he had barely said a word and was staring blankly ahead. Glancing at Severus she waved a silencing spell around all three of them. She stood and kneeled down in front of him taking his hands in hers.

"Harry" she gently spoke. Harry turned to face her, his face void of any emotion but tears were still streaming down his cheeks.

"Why does this always happen to me. I just want to be normal." He sobbed and threw his arms around Sophia's neck.

"Oh sweetheart." She began rubbing circles in his lower back and kissed his head softly.

"I wish I could take away your pain and experiences Harry but I can't these challenges have made you who you are today. I want you to understand though that none of this will continue from now on though. Once we leave you will experience happiness and will have the childhood you have always dreamed of. I know I could never replace your mum Lily but I would really love if you would let me be your parent Harry. I promise you that you will be happy and loved from now on." Sophia said pulling back and looking him in the eyes.

Harry stared at her opened mouthed... she wanted him... offered him happiness.. but he was a freak... no one ever wanted him. Severus gasped and stared at Harry having been reading his thoughts. While Sophia frowned at him.

In a small voice Harry spoke up, "you really want me?"

"Of course I want you Harry." She smiled softly at him and pulled him into a hug. She kissed him softly on his forehead and pulled a blanket over his lap and handed him his plate. "Now order some food and eat every bit of it young man."

"Yes mother." Harry huffed holding the plate and Sophia beamed at him and ruffled his hair.

Severus watched the pair and his heart pained knowing how much he had hurt harry. He was shocked at the anger that poured through him when he heard Harrys thoughts. With a shock he realised how similar their lives had been. He needed to apologies he wanted to be a part of their lives and was extremely tempted to take up her offer to travel with them.

Taking a deep breath he turned to Harry, "Harry?"

"Yes sir?" Harry spoke quietly pausing eating his dinner.

"I want to apologies to you for my treatment over the last few years. I'm afraid I let my hatred of your father get the better of me. You see when I was younger I was in the same year as your parents and your mother was my best friend." He paused here when Harry grasped, Sophia was watching him curiously. "Yes we knew each other before Hogwarts. However your dad hated me and him and his friends made my life hell. One day I snapped and called your mother a 'mudblood' when she was trying to defend me. I regret this everyday but after that she never forgave me. Slytherin house is extremely different to the rest of the school there is a lot of pressure and expectations.. I became a death eater in my hatred of your father. I guess I saw you and you looked so like him you reminded me of my school days and the loss of the only woman I ever loved. I am sorry for not seeing you as your own person and treated you in such a cruel way. If you would let me I would like to get to know you as just Harry if you would let me?" he finished watching Harry carefully so many emotions were flying across his face, shock, outrage, anger, betrayal and finally acceptance.

"I'm sorry to sir I wasn't nice to you either. Thank you for apologising I guess we aren't much different I know how it feels to be bullied, and I would very much like to be just Harry." Harry said looking at him and smiling for the first time and Severus smiled hesitantly back. Both of their heads snapped to Sophia when they heard her sob.

"Oh my two boys that was just so sweet." She through her arms around both of them hugging the life out of them. Severus and Harry looked at each other in shock at the crying women in their arms.

Sophia pulled back and burst out laughing. "Oh your faces, so funny. We should get on with the reading it's getting late."

She turned to the rest of the room and took down the silencing spell and waved the book over to Tonks who looked up smiled and began to read to the now silent hall.

"Chapter 18 - Dobby's Reward"

"Dobby wasn't that the house elf from the beginning?" asked Susan Bones frowning

_"Yeah" Hannah Abbott replied equally confused. _

For a moment there was silence as Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Lockhart stood in the doorway, covered in muck and slime and (in Harry's case) blood. Then there was a scream.

"Ginny!" It was Mrs. Weasley, who had been sitting crying in front of the fire. She leapt to her feet, closely followed by Mr. Weasley, and both of them flung themselves on their daughter.

Harry, however, was looking past them. Professor Dumbledore was standing by the mantelpiece, beaming, next to Professor McGonagall, who was taking great, steadying gasps, clutching her chest. Fawkes went whooshing past Harry's ear and settled on Dumbledore's shoulder, just as Harry found himself and Ron being swept into Mrs. Weasley's tight embrace.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," said Professor McGonagall weakly.

McGonagall turned to Harry and looked at him who blushed sheepishly.

"Mr Potter I do not believe you told us the entire story." She smiled softly at him.

Mrs. Weasley let go of Harry, who hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the desk and laid upon it the Sorting Hat, the ruby-encrusted sword, and what remained of Riddle's diary.

Then he started telling them everything. For nearly a quarter of an hour he spoke into the rapt silence: He told them about hearing the disembodied voice, how Hermione had finally realized that he was hearing a basilisk in the pipes; how he and Ron had followed the spiders into the forest, that Aragog had told them where the last victim of the basilisk had died; how he had guessed that Moaning Myrtle had been the victim, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets might be in her bathroom…

"Very well," Professor McGonagall prompted him as he paused, "so you found out where the entrance was — breaking a hundred school rules into pieces along the way,

I might add — but how on earth did you all get out of there alive, Potter?"

So Harry, his voice now growing hoarse from all this talking, told them about Fawkes's timely arrival and about the Sorting Hat giving him the sword. But then he faltered. He had so far avoided mentioning Riddle's diary — or Ginny. She was standing with her head against Mrs. Weasley's shoulder, and tears were still coursing silently down her cheeks. What if they expelled her? Harry thought in panic. Riddle's diary didn't work anymore… How could they prove it had been he who'd made her do it all?

Instinctively, Harry looked at Dumbledore, who smiled faintly, the firelight glancing off his half-moon spectacles.

"What interests me most," said Dumbledore gently, "is how Lord Voldemort managed to enchant Ginny, when my sources tell me he is currently in hiding in the forests of Albania."

Sophia growled at Dumbledore. The hall shifted away from her slowly when they saw her magic begin to crackle around her.

"He knew the entire time." Remus said turning to face Dumbledore.

One look at Sophia was all they needed for everyone to turn on Dumbledore once more.

Relief — warm, sweeping, glorious relief – swept over Harry. "W-what's that?" said Mr. Weasley in a stunned voice. "You-Know-Who? En-enchant Ginny? But Ginny's not… Ginny hasn't been… has she?"

"It was this diary," said Harry quickly, picking it up and showing it to Dumbledore. "Riddle wrote it when he was sixteen…"

Dumbledore took the diary from Harry and peered keenly down his long, crooked nose at its burnt and soggy pages.

"Brilliant," he said softly. "Of course, he was probably the most brilliant student Hogwarts has ever seen." He turned around to the Weasleys, who were looking utterly bewildered.

"Very few people know that Lord Voldemort was once called Tom Riddle. I taught him myself, fifty years ago, at Hogwarts. He disappeared after leaving the school… traveled far and wide… sank so deeply into the Dark Arts, consorted with the very worst of our kind, underwent so many dangerous, magical transformations, that when he resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, he was barely recognizable. Hardly anyone connected Lord Voldemort with the clever, handsome boy who was once Head Boy here."

"But, Ginny," said Mrs. Weasley. "What's our Ginny got to do with — with — him?"

"His d-diary" Ginny sobbed. "I've b-been writing in it, and he's been w-writing back all year —"

"Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain." Bill recited perfectly smirking at his dad who blushed furiously and those around them laughed quietly and the poor family.

"Ginny!" said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. "Haven't I taught you anything. What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain? Why didn't you show the diary to me, or your mother? A suspicious object like that, it was clearly full of Dark Magic!'

"I d-didn't know," sobbed Ginny. "I found it inside one of the books Mum got me. I th-thought someone had just left it in there and forgotten about it —"

"Miss Weasley should go up to the hospital wing right away," Dumbledore interrupted in a firm voice.

"No she should see a mind healer at St Mungos the girl was possessed for Christ sake." Mrs Malfoy growled in outrage.

Mr Weasley frowned trying to think about why they didn't take her.

"This has been a terrible ordeal for her. There will be no punishment. Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort." He strode over to the door and opened it. "Bed rest and perhaps a large, steaming mug of hot chocolate. I always find that cheers me up," he added, twinkling kindly down at her. "You will find that Madam Pomfrey is still awake. She's just giving out Mandrake juice — I daresay the basilisk's victims will be waking up any moment.".

Sighs of relief echoed around the room.

"So Hermione's okay!" said Ron brightly.

"There has been no lasting harm done, Ginny," said Dumbledore.

Mrs. Weasley led Ginny out, and Mr. Weasley followed, still looking deeply shaken.

"You know, Minerva," Professor Dumbledore said thoughtfully to Professor McGonagall, "I think all this merits a good feast. Might I ask you to go and alert the kitchens?"

"Right," said Professor McGonagall crisply, also moving to the door. "I'll leave you to deal with Potter and Weasley, shall I?"

"Certainly," said Dumbledore.

She left, and Harry and Ron gazed uncertainly at Dumbledore. What exactly had Professor McGonagall meant, deal with them? Surely — surely — they weren't about to be punished?

"I seem to remember telling you both that I would have to expel you if you broke any more school rules," said Dumbledore.

Immediately the hall stood and began to protest.

"You can't punish Harry he saved the school." Fred shouted in outrage.

"SILENCE" Sophia shouted sending off and extremely loud screeching sound made people cover their ears. "This has already happened and both boys and still here."

Those who shouted blush furiously and mumbled apologies while Sophia smirked.

Ron opened his mouth in horror.

"Which goes to show that the best of us must sometimes eat our words," Dumbledore went on, smiling.

"You will both receive Special Awards for Services to the School and — let me see — yes, I think two hundred points apiece for Gryffindor."

The Gryffindors began clapping and chanting Harry's name while the rest of the school glared at them.

Ron went as brightly pink as Lockhart's valentine flowers and closed his mouth again.

"But one of us seems to be keeping mightily quiet about his part in this dangerous adventure," Dumbledore added. "Why so modest, Gilderoy?"

Harry gave a start. He had completely forgotten about Lockhart. He turned and saw that Lockhart was standing in a corner of the room, still wearing his vague smile. When Dumbledore addressed him, Lockhart looked over his shoulder to see who he was talking to.

"Professor Dumbledore," Ron said quickly, "there was an accident down in the Chamber of Secrets. Professor Lockhart —"

"Am I a professor?" said Lockhart in mild surprise. "Goodness. I expect I was hopeless, was I?"

"Finally he's speaking sense," said Bill.

"He tried to do a Memory Charm and the wand backfired," Ron explained quietly to Dumbledore.

"Dear me," said Dumbledore, shaking his head, his long silver mustache quivering. "Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!"

Snickers could be heard around the room at this.

"Sword?" said Lockhart dimly. "Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though." He pointed at Harry. "He'll lend you one."

"I think I like this Lockhart better than the sane one," said Charlie. "He seems saner somehow."

"Would you mind taking Professor Lockhart up to the infirmary, too?" Dumbledore said to Ron.

"I'd like a few more words with Harry…"

Lockhart ambled out. Ron cast a curious look back at Dumbledore and Harry as he closed the door.

Dumbledore crossed to one of the chairs by the fire.

"Sit down, Harry," he said, and Harry sat, feeling unaccountably nervous.

"First of all, Harry, I want to thank you," said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling again. "You must have shown me real loyalty down in the Chamber. Nothing but that could have called Fawkes to you."

Sophia coughed to hide her snicker but Severus looked at her raising his eyebrow.

She shook her head and smiled at him. Harry looked up at the pair of them watching.

He stroked the phoenix, which had fluttered down onto his knee. Harry grinned awkwardly as Dumbledore watched him.

"And so you met Tom Riddle," said Dumbledore thoughtfully. "I imagine he was most interested in you…"

Suddenly, something that was nagging at Harry came tumbling out of his mouth.

"Professor Dumbledore… Riddle said I'm like him. Strange likenesses, he said…"

"It's not totally a bad thing, he is extremely intelligent, good looking, charming, heir of a founder... just because he was completely evil before I fixed him doesn't mean he doesn't have some good points. Everyone has good points you just have to be willing to spend the time to find them." Sophia spoke quietly to Harry but her eyes never left Severus who blushed slightly at her gaze.

"Did he, now?" said Dumbledore, looking thoughtfully at Harry from under his thick silver eyebrows. "And what do you think, Harry?"

"I don't think I'm like him!" said Harry, more loudly than he'd intended. "I mean, I'm — I'm in Gryffindor, I'm…"

But he fell silent, a lurking doubt resurfacing in his mind.

"Professor," he started again after a moment. "The Sorting Hat told me I'd — I'd have done well in Slytherin. Everyone thought I was Slytherin's heir for a while… because I can speak Parseltongue…"

"You can speak Parseltongue, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly, "because Lord Voldemort — who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin — can speak Parseltongue. Unless I'm much mistaken, he transferred some of his own powers to you the night he gave you that scar.

Not something he intended to do, I'm sure…"

People around the hall gasped and stared at Harry.

"Don't worry folks I have removed the Dark Lords influence and the Goblins will remove anything I have missed. Harry is completely his own person." Sophia smiled down at Harry.

Dumbledore glared in anger.. the boy was supposed to die.. how dare she ruin everything for him... ohh how he would get her.

"Voldemort put a bit of himself in me?" Harry said, thunderstruck.

"It certainly seems so."

"So I should be in Slytherin," Harry said, looking desperately into Dumbledore's face. "The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin's power in me, and it —"

"Put you in Gryffindor," said Dumbledore calmly. "Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own very rare gift, Parseltongue — resourcefulness — determination — a certain disregard for rules,

" he added, his mustache quivering again. "Yet the Sorting Hat placed you in Gryffindor. You know why that was. Think."

"It only put me in Gryffindor," said Harry in a defeated voice, "because I asked not to go in Slytherin…"

"Exactly, "said Dumbledore, beaming once more. "Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." Harry sat motionless in his chair, stunned. "If you want proof, Harry, that you belong in Gryffindor, I suggest you look more closely at this."

Dumbledore reached across to Professor McGonagall's desk, picked up the blood-stained silver sword, and handed it to Harry. Dully, Harry turned it over, the rubies blazing in the firelight. And then he saw the name engraved just below the hilt.

Godric Gryffindor

"Merlin!" cried Percy. "He pulled Gryffindor's sword out of the hat!"

"It makes sense," said Bill. "The Sorting Hat was Gryffindor's and the sword is Gryffindor's. So, it makes sense that a true Gryffindor could get the sword, but it probably doesn't happen very often."

"Only a true Gryffindor could have pulled that out of the hat, Harry," said Dumbledore simply.

"That's not exactly true, you can wield its power Harry because you are a descendant of Godric." Sophia said.

"Really?" Harry asked in amazement.

Sophia nodded and then thought for a second. She pulled out her wand and a piece of parchment from her bag and held the parchment for harry to hold.

"Sweetie place three drops of blood on the parchment." Sophia said. Harry frowned but did as she asked.

Sophia waved her want and muttered, "Forma familia arbor" Harry watched in open amazement as his name appeared on the parchment and slowly branched upwards names began appearing connected to one another. Sophia's name showed up next to Harry's as she had adopted him.

"This... this.. is my family." He looked at it for a long while tears trailing down his face.

Neville, Luna & Draco were all watching Harry fondly they were happy he finally got to see his family.

Tonks decided to carry on reading but she was smiling softly about Harry.

For a minute, neither of them spoke. Then Dumbledore pulled open one of the drawers in Professor McGonagall's desk and took out a quill and a bottle of ink.

"What you need, Harry, is some food and sleep. I suggest you go down to the feast, while I write to Azkaban —we need our gamekeeper back.

And I must draft an advertisement for the Daily Prophet, too," he added Thoughtfully. "We'll be needing a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…

Dear me, we do seem to run through them, don't we?"

"Well.." Sophia drawled acting like a pompous Malfoy and many people laughed. "You could call and curse breaker to remove the curse from the position.. but they must be terribly hard to find since it's been 50 years." Sophia paused in mock concern and then turned to Bill Weasley who blushed looking back at her. "Oh look a curse breaker... Bill Weasley." Sophia clapped happily smiling. The hall roared with laughter at Dumbledore's face.

Harry got up and crossed to the door. He had just reached for the handle, however, when the door burst open so violently that it bounced back off the wall.

Lucius Malfoy stood there, fury in his face. And cowering behind his legs, heavily wrapped in bandages, was Dobby.

Lucius at this moment was staring straight ahead avoiding anyone looking at him his face void of any emotion. Narcissa frowned and pulled Draco over to her. Draco was looking at his father in confusion he had a terrible feeling at this. He glanced over at Harry who smiled at him softly from his place on Sophia's lap.

"Good evening, Lucius," said Dumbledore pleasantly.

Mr. Malfoy almost knocked Harry over as he swept into the room. Dobby went scurrying in after him, crouching at the hem of his cloak, a look of abject terror on his face.

The elf was carrying a stained rag with which he was attempting to finish cleaning Mr. Malfoys shoes. Apparently Mr. Malfoy had set out in a great hurry, for not only were his shoes half-polished, but his usually sleek hair was disheveled.

Snickers could be heard throughout the room.

Ignoring the elf bobbing apologetically around his ankles, he fixed his cold eyes upon Dumbledore.

"So!" he said "You've come back. The governors suspended you, but you still saw fit to return to Hogwarts."

"Well, you see, Lucius," said Dumbledore, smiling serenely, "the other eleven governors contacted me today. It was something like being caught in a hailstorm of owls, to tell the truth. They'd heard that Arthur Weasley's daughter had been killed and wanted me back here at once. They seemed to think I was the best man for the job after all. Very strange tales they told me, too… Several of them seemed to think that you had threatened to curse their families if they didn't agree to suspend me in the first place."

Mr. Malfoy went even paler than usual, but his eyes were still slits of fury..

"Mr Malfoy I do believe we shall be having a chat once the books have been completed." Madam Bones said peering over her glasses at him.

He gave a short and swift nod acknowledging her.

"So — have you stopped the attacks yet?" he sneered. "Have you caught the culprit?"

"We have," said Dumbledore, with a smile.

"Well?" said Mr. Malfoy sharply. "Who is it?"

"The same person as last time, Lucius," said Dumbledore. "But this time, Lord Voldemort was acting through somebody else. By means of this diary."

He held up the small black book with the large hole through the center, watching Mr. Malfoy closely.

Harry, however, was watching Dobby.

The elf was doing something very odd. His great eyes fixed meaningfully on Harry, he kept pointing at the diary, then at Mr. Malfoy, and then hitting himself hard on the head with his fist.

Those who had figured it out gasped in horror and stared at Lucius.

"I see…" said Mr. Malfoy slowly to Dumbledore.

"A clever plan," said Dumbledore in a level voice, still staring Mr. Malfoy straight in the eye. "Because if Harry here —" Mr. Malfoy shot Harry a swift, sharp look "and his friend Ron hadn't discovered this book, why — Ginny Weasley might have taken all the blame. No one would ever have been able to prove she hadn't acted of her own free will…"

Mr. Malfoy said nothing. His face was suddenly masklike.

"ahh the perfect Slytherin" Sophia smiled. "Oh how I miss Salazar." Sophia closed her eyes smiling in memory of her long gone friend.

"You no Salazar Slytherin?" Draco asked shocked.

"Hhmm oh yes he was a wonderful man. I'm actually godmother to his first born son." Sophia replied.

Everyone looked at her opened mouthed. They had forgotten how old she was.

"Immortally can be a curse at times when those you love pass on. However I do get to flitter between the world." Sophia said and motioned for Tonks to continue.

"And imagine," Dumbledore went on, "what might have happened then… The Weasleys are one of our most prominent pure-blood families. Imagine the effect on Arthur Weasley and his Muggle Protection Act, if his own daughter was discovered attacking and — killing Muggle-borns… Very fortunate the diary was discovered, and Riddle's memories wiped from it. Who knows what the consequences might have been otherwise…"

Mr. Malfoy forced himself to speak.

"Very fortunate," he said stiffly.

And still, behind his back, Dobby was pointing, first to the diary, then to Lucius Malfoy, then punching himself in the head.

And Harry suddenly understood. He nodded at Dobby, and Dobby backed into a corner, now twisting his ears in punishment.

Sophia clapped, "Well done Harry."

"Were all proud of you cub." Remus spoke up while snuffles nodded along.

Harry beamed at them all.

"Don't you want to know how Ginny got hold of that diary, Mr. Malfoy?" said Harry.

Lucius Malfoy rounded on him.

"How should I know how the stupid little girl got hold of it?" he said.

"Because you gave it to her," said Harry. "In Flourish and Blotts. You picked up her old Transfiguration book and slipped the diary inside it, didn't you?"

He saw Mr. Malfoy's white hands clench and unclench.

"Prove it," he hissed.

"Oh, no one will be able to do that," said Dumbledore, smiling at Harry. "Not now that Riddle has vanished from the book. On the other hand, I would advise you, Lucius, not to go giving out any more of Lord Voldemort's old school things. If any more of them find their way into innocent hands, I think Arthur Weasley, for one, will make sure they are traced back to you…"

Lucius blanched at this remembering the Dark Lords anger at this.

Lucius Malfoy stood for a moment, and Harry distinctly saw his right hand twitch as though he was longing to reach for his wand. Instead, he turned to his house-elf. "We're going, Dobby!"

He wrenched open the door and as the elf came hurrying up to him, he kicked him right through it..

They could hear Dobby squealing with pain all the way along the corridor.

Harry stood for a moment, thinking hard. Then it came to him —

"Professor Dumbledore," he said hurriedly. "Can I give that diary back to Mr. Malfoy, please?"

"Certainly, Harry," said Dumbledore calmly. "But hurry. The feast, remember…" Harry grabbed the diary and dashed out of the office. He could hear Dobby's squeals of pain receding around the corner. Quickly, wondering if this plan could possibly work, Harry took off one of his shoes, pulled off his slimy, filthy sock, and stuffed the diary into it.

Then he ran down the dark corridor.

He caught up with them at the top of the stairs.

"Mr. Malfoy," he gasped, skidding to a halt, "I've got something for you —"

And he forced the smelly sock into Lucius Malfoy's hand.

"He not going to be happy," said Arthur, grinning.

"What the —?"

Mr. Malfoy ripped the sock off the diary, threw it aside, then looked furiously from the ruined book to Harry. "You'll meet the same sticky end as your parents one of these days, Harry Potter," he said softly. "They were meddlesome fools, too."

He turned to go.

"Come, Dobby. I said, come."

But Dobby didn't move. He was holding up Harry's disgusting, slimy sock, and looking at it as though it were a priceless treasure.

"Master has given a sock," said the elf in wonderment. "Master gave it to Dobby."

The whole hall began cheering.

"What's that?" spat Mr. Malfoy. "What did you say?"

"Got a sock," said Dobby in disbelief. "Master threw it, and Dobby caught it, and Dobby — Dobby is free."

Lucius Malfoy stood frozen, staring at the elf then he lunged at Harry.

"You better not have hurt my son." Sophia growled at him.

He shifted back terrified of the woman in front of him.

Harry smiled proudly at her.

"You've lost me my servant, boy!"

"No, you did," retorted Percy.

But Dobby shouted, "You shall not harm Harry Potter!"

There was a loud bang, and Mr. Malfoy was thrown backward. He crashed down the stairs, three at a time, landing in a crumpled heap on the landing below.

Cheering erupted from throughout the room. Everyone was glad that Mr. Malfoy had finally got what had been coming to him for a long time.

He got up, his face livid, and pulled out his wand, but Dobby raised a long, threatening finger.

"You shall go now," he said fiercely, pointing down at Mr. Malfoy. "You shall not touch Harry Potter. You shall go now."

The elf's ugly brown face split suddenly into a wide, toothy smile.

"Way to go Dobby." Fred cheered.

"Dobby, Dobby, Dobby." George began chanting.

The purebloods in the room glanced at each other fearfully they never realised the power the elves had.

"I've just got one question, Dobby," said Harry as Dobby pulled on Harry's sock with shaking hands. "You told me all this had nothing to do with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, remember? Well —"

"It was a clue, sir," said Dobby, his eyes widening, as though this was obvious. "Was giving you a clue. The Dark Lord, before he changed his name, could be freely named, you see?"

"Right," said Harry weakly. "Well, I'd better go. There's a feast, and my friend Hermione should be awake by now…"

Dobby threw his arms around Harry's middle and hugged him.

"Harry Potter is greater by far than Dobby knew!" he sobbed. "Farewell, Harry Potter!"

Harry blushed beetroot red and buried his head in Sophia's chest as she laughed when the twins started catcalling.

And with a final loud crack, Dobby disappeared.

Harry had been to several Hogwarts feasts, but never one quite like this. Everybody was in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. Harry didn't know whether the best bit was Hermione running toward him, screaming "You solved it! You solved it!" or Justin hurrying over from the Hufflepuff table to wring his hand and apologize endlessly for suspecting him, or Hagrid turning up at half past three, cuffing Harry and Ron so hard on the shoulders that they were knocked into their plates of trifle, or his and Ron's four hundred points for Gryffindor securing the House Cup for the second year running, or Professor McGonagall standing up to tell them all that the exams had been canceled as a school treat

"Yay!" cried the students

("Oh, no!" said Hermione),

Hermione blushed and continued to glare at the table in front of her.

or Dumbledore announcing that, unfortunately, Professor Lockhart would be unable to return next year, owing to the fact that he needed to go away and get his memory back. Quite a few of the teachers joined in the cheering that greeted this news.

"Shame," said Ron, helping himself to a jam doughnut. "He has starting to grow on me."

The rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. Hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences — Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were canceled ("but we've had plenty of practice at that anyway," Ron told a disgruntled Hermione) and Lucius Malfoy had been sacked as a school governor.

"Yes!" cried Bill cried fist pumping the air. Lucius Malfoy turned and glared at him.

Draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. On the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. On the other hand, Ginny Weasley was perfectly happy again.

They were almost at King's Cross when Harry remembered something.

"Ginny – what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?"

"Oh, that," said Ginny, giggling. "Well — Percy's got a girlfriend."

Percy at this moment blushed and looked up at the ceiling. While his brothers were teasing him.

Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head.

"What?"

"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny.

Said prefect beamed at Percy and went to join him and greeted the other Weasleys politely.

"That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upset when she was — you know — attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.

"Definitely not," said George, sniggering.

The Hogwarts Express slowed and finally stopped.

Harry pulled out his quill and a bit of parchment and turned to Ron and Hermione.

"This is called a telephone number," he told Ron, scribbling it twice, tearing the parchment in two, and handing it to them. "I told your dad how to use a telephone last summer — he'll know. Call me at the Dursleys', okay? I can't stand another two months with only Dudley to talk to…"

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "When they hear what you did this year?"

"Proud?" said Harry. "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious…"

Growls began to be heard around the room. People shift away from Remus when his eyes started to shift colour.

And together they walked back through the gateway to the Muggle world.

Tonks snapped the book closed and turned to look at Sophia. Harry yawned from his seat on Sophia along with several other people around the room.

Sophia looked around the room before speaking, "That's the end of year two. I think it's time we all went to bed and started afresh in the morning. "

**A/N - ****Forma****familia****arbor**** – Latin for form family tree**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter or its world. This is simply for fun and my own amusement. Everything belongs to JK Rowling. Please see AN at the end I'm looking for a new story to read and need suggestions.**

**Filler Chapter:**

Sophia looked around the room and watched as the children began to make their way to their dorms while the adults all crowed together at the end of one of the tables and deep discussion looked about to take place. She stood pushing down the creases in her dress and held out her hand to Harry. Poor child looked ready to pass out where he sat. It had been a trying few days for all of them and a good night's rest was exactly what they needed. Harry stood and took her hand smiling feeling like a small child. He was going to take every small pleasure that came his way he didn't know when his luck might run out.

Sophia looked over at Severus before speaking, "You coming up now or are you going to stay awhile?"

"I think I'll come up with you." He said getting up from the sofa, he needed the sleep to try and clear his head and organise his jumbled thoughts. The three of them began to make their way out of the great hall. Harry waved goodnight to people as he walked past them proudly holding Sophia's hand.

The walk to the 7th floor was extremely long especially after such a trying day. Harry began dragging his feet with exhaustion. Sophia smiled at him sadly, "come on poppet not much further and then you can jump into bed for the night." Harry nodded weakly.

Severus sighed when they began to slow again and turned seeing Harry almost passing out as he walked. He stopped and lifted Harry onto his hip whom immediately began to protest while blushing furiously.

"Sir I can walk please put me down." Harry asked looking anywhere but the two of them.

"Harry you are dead on your feet stop complaining." Severus drawled.

Sophia smiled happily at the pair and tried her hardest not to clap at how cute there were. If she didn't know any better she would think she was picking up Bellatrix insanity, but alas she was simply happy. With that thought she caught up to her two boys and gently placed a hand on the small of Severus back as they walked toward their rooms. Severus felt elated looking at Harry in his arms and Sophia supporting his silently. He wasn't used to being this way with people so open.

Anyone walking behind them would have thought they were a small family.

...

Severus gently lowered Harry into his bed while Sophia waved her wand to brush his teeth and changed him into his Pjs. She pulled the covers up and tucked him in kissing his head before sitting on the end of his bed. Severus stood leaning against the wall watching the pair.

"Harry how are you feeling?" Sophia asked gently.

"I'm happy, tired, confused, angry... I don't know I guess this is all happening so fast I don't know how to take everything." He said glancing between the pair of them.

"I know that feeling." Severus muttered darkly.

"I'm afraid it's not going to get much better until we leave." She said frowning slightly.

"Sophia could you reading me a story." Harry asked quietly. "No one has every tucked me in and read me a story before."

Sophia smiled and got comfortable and waved a chair for Severus to sit down on.

"Ok let me see... how about the first time I met the infamous Salazar Slythering" She asked.

Both looked at her opened mouthed nodding.

Chuckling quietly she began her tale... Sophia had been out travelling the world to catch up on all that she had missed. You see she had just returned from visiting her parents and it had been around 100 years the world was a different place. One day she was shopping in a local market in London when women began to be rounded up. It was the time of the witch trials. Salazar recognising her instantly coming to her rescue declared her to be his wife and challenged anyone to duel him if they wanted to have her. Sophia here paused to play out the damsel in distress part had both Harry and Severus in stitches. On she continued with her tale. Salazar pulled her up onto his horse his arm around her waist and they road of into the English country side together.

"No that can be all that happened." Harry said laughing.

Sophia giggled, "No what happened was we rode to the edge of town and he set me down and jumped down himself,

"My lady it is a pleasure to meet you," He bowed formally.

Sophia smiled and allowed him to kiss her hand, "Thank you for rescuing me."

"Well sweetheart it was my pleasure." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

She stared at him opened mouthed and that's when he pounced kissing her furiously on the lips. Sophia pulled back and punched him.

Severus stared at her, "you punched Salazar Slytherin... amazing"

"In my defence he was drunk but after that we became firm friends I introduced him to his wife Elena di Marco beautiful woman." Sophia smiled.

Both of them turned to Harry when they heard a snore. Sophia laughed and stood up. Harry was smiling in his sleep clutching the blanket.

"I see someone enjoyed my tale." She said. "Indeed you are correct" Severus said and followed her out of the room.

They stood outside her room both looking at one another. "Goodnight" Severus said turning but a hand stopped him.

Sophia stood on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek lightly, "thank you." She spoke softly in his ear before walking into her bedroom for the night.

Severus stood long after she had gone staring at the door one hand on the cheek she had kissed. A smile made its way onto his face the first true smile had had in a long while...

...

**A/N its short but it's just a treat for taking so long to update. Hope you liked.**

**Loyal readers I am looking for a story to read... I want it to be Harry travels back in time and adopts Tom Riddle and/or Severus Snape & he stays in the past. Anyone have any recommendations?**


	22. Chapter 22

A/N – Hello lovely readers. I am in the mood to write to day so not sure how many chapters I will be uploading. Spending my Friday night writing snack food is ready. Who needs friends ah they only mess you around! Small rant over! I want to thank everyone who has stuck with me and everyone that has reviewed. Still looking out for a BETA as I know my spelling and grammar suck... I do try just not one of my strengths.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy this.

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter I know we would all love to but alas she beat us to it. This is purely for fun and my own amusement.

...

The following morning saw everyone sat around in the great hall. Gone were the table and chairs instead there were giant bean bags and sofas scattered around for everyone's comfort. Sophia and Severus were sat close together on a love seat, while Harry, Neville, Draco and Luna were lounging on a giant bean bag in front of them.

Sophia glanced around the room and clapped for attention. "So year three Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Who would like to ready first?"

"I will please." Hannah Abbott said and Sophia levitated the book over to her.

**CHAPTER ONE, Owl Post**

**Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.**

Draco snorted at this but quickly quieted when Harry smacked him round the back of the head..."Prat"

**For one thing, he hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, he really wanted to do his homework but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of night**.

Fred and George stared at Harry at Harry as if there world had just ended.

"Harry Potter.."

"wanting to do his homework"

"The horror" they chimed together.

Harry just glared at them. Which promoted many snickers at how cute he looked.

**And he also happened to be a wizard.**

**It was nearly midnight, and he was lying on his stomach in bed, the blankets drawn right over his head like a tent, a flashlight in one hand and a large leather-bound book (_A History of Magic _by Bathilda Bagshot) propped open against the pillow. Harry moved the tip of his eagle-feather quill down the page, frowning as he looked for something that would help him write his essay, 'Witch Burning in the Fourteenth Century Was Completely Pointless — discuss.'**

"Who comes up with these essays that title is ridiculous what are you teaching them in history of magic? For Christ sake a high number of your students do not even know there is a magical queen" Sophia said glaring at the teachers who shifted uncomfortably.

"Well the teacher is a ghost Professor Binns. There's nothing we can do the headmaster is in charge of hiring staff." Professor Flitwick replied.

"You people are idiot's I'm sorry but you are. Why on earth did you not exorcise him? Then the headmaster would have to hire someone. You clearly do not care about their education." Sophia growled, the staff looked outraged but she waved Hannah on to continue.

**The quill paused at the top of a likely looking paragraph. Harry pushed his round glasses up the bridge of his nose, moved his flashlight closer to the book, and read:**

**_Non-magic people (more commonly known as Muggles) were particularly afraid of magic in medieval times, but not very good at recognizing it. On the rare occasion that they did catch a real witch or wizard, burning had no effect whatsoever. The witch or wizard would perform a basic Flame-Freezing Charm and then pretend to shriek with pain while enjoying a gentle, tickling sensation. Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burned so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than forty-seven times in various disguises. _**

**Harry put his quill between his teeth and reached underneath his pillow for his inkbottle and a roll of parchment. Slowly and very carefully he unscrewed the ink bottle, dipped his quill into it, and began to write, pausing every now and then to listen, because if any of the Dursleys heard the scratching of his quill on their way to the bathroom, he'd probably find himself locked in the cupboard under the stairs for the rest of the summer.**

Growls were heard all around the room.

"Remus stop now." Tonks said holding his arms in placed when his eyes flashed yellow and he growled.

**The Dursley family of Number Four, Privet Drive, was the reason that Harry never enjoyed his summer holidays.**

More growls were heard. While Harry smiled happily glancing at Sophia he was never going back there.

**Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their son, Dudley, were Harry's only living relatives. They were Muggles, and they had a very medieval attitude toward magic. Harry's dead parents, who had been a witch and wizard themselves, were never mentioned under the Dursleys' roof. For years, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had hoped that if they kept Harry as downtrodden as possible, they would be able to squash the magic out of him.**

"Squash the magic it out of him." Tonks scream her hair flashing blood red, it was Remus's turn to grab her and pin her down.

**To their fury, they had not been unsuccessful. These days they lived in terror of anyone finding out that Harry had spent most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.**

**The most they could do, however, was to lock away Harry's spell books, wand, cauldron, and broomstick at the start of the summer break, and forbid him to talk to the neighbors.**

**This separation from his spell books had been a real problem for Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of holiday work.**

"Mr Potter if you had told us we would have helped you." Professor McGonagall stated frowning at him.

"I told the headmaster so why would any of you be any different." Harry glared

"Harry James mind your manners, Even if I do agree with you." Sophia said.

Harry blushed and looked down and whispered, "Sorry"

**One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about shrinking potions, was for Harry's least favorite teacher, Professor Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry detention for a month.**

Severus sighed and rubbed his temples guilt was not an emotion he liked to feel.

Sophia looked at him and moved closer her arm brushing against him offering silent support. He glanced at her and smiled briefly.

**Harry had therefore seized his chance in the first week of the holidays. While Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley had gone out into the front garden to admire Uncle Vernon's new company car (in very loud voices, so that the rest of the street would notice it too), Harry had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of his books, and hidden them in his bedroom. As long as he didn't leave spots of ink on the sheets, the Dursleys need never know that he was studying magic by night.**

**Harry was particularly keen to avoid trouble with his aunt and uncle at the moment, as they were already in an especially bad mood with him, all because he'd received a telephone call from a fellow wizard one week into the school vacation.**

As one the hall snapped to the attention of an enraged Ronald Weasley who was trying to stand up.

**Ron Weasley, who was one of Harry's best friends at Hogwarts, came from a whole family of wizards. This meant that he knew a lot of things Harry didn't, but had never used a telephone before. Most unluckily, it had been Uncle Vernon who had answered the call.**

**"Vernon Dursley speaking."**

**Harry, who happened to be in the room at the time, froze as he heard Ron's voice answer.**

**"HELLO? HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME? I — WANT — TO — TALK — TO — HARRY — POTTER!"**

Many of the muggleborns cringed and shook their heads, while the others looked on in confusion, believing that the way Ron was using this phone was the correct way.

"You're not supposed to yell into it." The muggle studies professor had stated, glad that her expertise could be of use.

"oohh" people sighed all around the room.

**Ron was yelling so loudly that Uncle Vernon jumped and held the receiver a foot away from his ear, staring at it with an expression of mingled fury and alarm.**

**"WHO IS THIS?" he roared in the direction of the mouthpiece. "WHO ARE YOU?"**

**"RON — WEASLEY!" Ron bellowed back, as though he and Uncle Vernon were speaking from opposite ends of a football field. "I'M — A — FRIEND — OF — HARRY'S — FROM — SCHOOL —"**

Harry sighed and held his head in his hand.

Draco wrapped an arm around him.

"Don't worry you don't have to deal with the prat anymore." He whispered

**Uncle Vernon's small eyes swivelled around to Harry, who was rooted to the spot.**

**"THERE IS NO HARRY POTTER HERE!" he roared, now holding the receiver at arm's length, as though frightened it might explode. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT SCHOOL YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! NEVER CONTACT ME AGAIN! DON'T YOU COME NEAR MY FAMILY!"**

**And he threw the receiver back onto the telephone as if dropping a poisonous spider. The fight that had followed had been one of the worst ever.**

**"HOW DARE YOU GIVE THIS NUMBER TO PEOPLE LIKE — PEOPLE LIKE _YOU_!" Uncle Vernon had roared, spraying Harry with spit.**

"People like us how dare that filthy muggle talk like that. This is why are worlds should be separate." A seventh year Slytherin boy shouted; while Sophia nodded in agreement to the shock of many.

"Don't look at me like that its true the magical population of this world would barely last 2 years if the muggles decided to wipe you out."

Silence met that statement.

It was a good while later before Hannah returned to reading.

**Ron obviously realized that he'd gotten Harry into trouble, because he hadn't called again. Harry's other best friend from Hogwarts, Hermione Granger, hadn't been in touch either.**

**Harry suspected that Ron had warned Hermione not to call, which was a pity, because Hermione, the cleverest witch in Harry's year, had Muggle parents, knew perfectly well how to use a telephone, and would probably have had enough sense not to say that she went to Hogwarts.**

"She still should have rang him. Although what do you expect from a back stabbing no it all." Lavender whispered to Pavarti while they both glared at their dorm mate.

**So Harry had had no word from any of his wizarding friends for five long weeks, and this summer was turning out to be almost as bad as the last one. There was just one very small improvement — after swearing that he wouldn't use her to send letters to any of his friends, Harry had been allowed to let his owl, Hedwig, out at night. Uncle Vernon had given in because of the racket Hedwig made if she was locked in her cage all the time.**

"That's animal abuse!" Someone shouted, feeling sad for the beautiful owl.

**Harry finished writing about Wendelin the Weird and paused to listen again. The silence in the dark house was broken only by the distant, grunting snores of his enormous cousin, Dudley. It must be very late, Harry thought. His eyes were itching with tiredness. Perhaps he'd finish this essay tomorrow night…**

"Harry sweety you should be asleep. Don't make me have to enforce a bed time for you." Sophia said while Harry sat there staring open mouthed her. Severus snickered beside her.

"Don't you start or I will ban you from your potion labs." She smirked at him

"You wouldn't." He said throwing his hands up to surrender. His face showed clear fear. He couldn't go a day without his potions.

"Hhmm well be a good boy then." Sophia said smiling while those around them giggle softly.

Severus huffed and crossed his arms glaring at the floor.

**He replaced the top of the ink bottle; pulled an old pillowcase from under his bed; put the flashlight, _A History of Magic_, his essay, quill, and ink inside it; got out of bed; and hid the lot under a loose floorboard under his bed.**

**Then he stood up, stretched, and checked the time on the luminous alarm clock on his bedside table. It was one o'clock in the morning. Harry's stomach gave a funny jolt. He had been thirteen years old, without realizing it, for a whole hour.**

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY." Fred and George shouted

**Yet another unusual thing about Harry was how little he looked forward to his birthdays.**

**He had never received a birthday card in his life. The Dursleys had completely ignored his last two birthdays, and he had no reason to suppose they would remember this one.**

**Harry walked across the dark room, past Hedwig's large, empty cage, to the open window. He leaned on the sill, the cool night air pleasant on his face after a long time under the blankets. Hedwig had been absent for two nights now. Harry wasn't worried about her: she'd been gone this long before. But he hoped she'd be back soon — she was the only living creature in this house who didn't flinch at the sight of him.**

Sophia frowned at this and leaned against Severus sighing she wished she had rescued him sooner. Severus wrapped and arm around her waist.

"Sophia we can make this right he will have excellent birthdays from now on I no you will make sure of it."

Sophia just smiled at him and kissed his cheek softly. Severus felt the colour rush to his face. She made him feel like a teenager again. It had only been a few days but he couldn't imagine going a day without seeing her, his magic screamed when she was touching him.

**Harry, though still rather small and skinny for his age, had grown a few inches over the last year. His jet-black hair, however, was just as it always had been — stubbornly untidy, whatever he did to it. The eyes behind his glasses were bright green, and on his forehead, clearly visible through his hair, was a thin scar, shaped like a bolt of lightning. Of all the unusual things about Harry, this scar was the most extraordinary of all.**

**It was not, as the Dursleys had pretended for ten years, a souvenir of the car crash that had killed Harry's parents, because Lily and James Potter had not died in a car crash.**

**They had been murdered, murdered by the most feared Dark wizard for a hundred years, Lord Voldemort. Harry had escaped from the same attack with nothing more than a scar on his forehead, where Voldemort's curse, instead of killing him, had rebounded upon its originator. Barely alive, Voldemort had fled…**

"Why are we listening to this again?" Blaise whispered to Theo who just shrugged and yawned.

**But Harry had come face-to-face with him at Hogwarts. Remembering their last meeting as he stood at the dark window, Harry had to admit he was lucky even to have reached his thirteenth birthday.**

**He scanned the starry sky for a sign of Hedwig, perhaps soaring back to him with a dead mouse dangling from her beak, expecting praise. Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few seconds before Harry realized what he was seeing.**

**Silhouetted against the golden moon, and growing larger every moment, was a large, strangely lopsided creature, and it was flapping in Harry's direction.**

**He stood quite still, watching it sink lower and lower. For a split second he hesitated, his hand on the window latch, wondering whether to slam it shut. But then the bizarre creature soared over one of the street lamps of Privet Drive, and Harry, realizing what it was, leapt aside.**

**Through the window soared three owls, two of them holding up the third, which appeared to be unconscious.**

The Weasley boys started to snicker here. While the rest of them looked at them in confusion.

**They landed with a soft _flump _on Harry's bed, and the middle owl, which was large and gray, keeled right over and lay motionless. There was a large package tied to its legs. Harry recognized the unconscious owl at once — his name was Errol, and he belonged to the Weasley family.**

"Poor owl," A first year Hufflepuff student commented.

**Harry dashed to the bed, untied the cords around Errol's legs, took off the parcel, and then carried Errol to Hedwig's cage. Errol opened one bleary eye, gave a feeble hoot of thanks, and began to gulp some water.**

**Harry turned back to the remaining owls. One of them, the large snowy female, was his own Hedwig. She, too, was carrying a parcel and looked extremely pleased with herself. She gave Harry an affectionate nip with her beak as he removed her burden, then flew across the room to join Errol.**

**Harry didn't recognize the third owl, a handsome tawny one, but he knew at once where it had come from, because in addition to a third package, it was carrying a letter bearing the Hogwarts crest. When Harry relieved this owl of its burden, it ruffled its feathers importantly, stretched its wings, and took off through the window into the night.**

**Harry sat down on his bed and grabbed Errol's package, ripped off the brown paper, and discovered a present wrapped in gold and his first ever birthday card.**

Several people turned to look at Harry who was currently being comforted by his friends.

Several of the women were dabbing their eyes sadly.

**Fingers trembling slightly, he opened the envelope. Two pieces of paper fell out — a letter and a newspaper clipping.**

**The clipping had clearly come out of the wizarding newspaper, the _Daily Prophet_, because the people in the black-and-white picture were moving. Harry picked up the clipping, smoothed it out, and read:**

**_MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE _**

_**Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, "We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank."The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend.** _

**Harry scanned the moving photograph, and a grin spread across his face as he saw all nine of the Weasleys waving furiously at him, standing in front of a large pyramid.**

**Plump little Mrs. Weasley; tall, balding Mr. Weasley; six sons; and one daughter, all (though the black-and-white picture didn't show it) with flaming-red hair. Right in the middle of the picture was Ron, tall and gangling, with his pet rat, Scabbers, on his shoulder and his arm around his little sister, Ginny.**

**Harry couldn't think of anyone who deserved to win a large pile of gold more than the Weasleys, who were very nice and extremely poor.**

"Sorry," Harry said blushing.

"Don't worry Harry." Mr Weasley said smiling kindly at him.

"What I don't understand is if you needed the money why waste it going on a holiday? Why not use it for the things you need and just have Bill visit you?" Tonks asked frowning in confusion.

"I ... I don't no." Mr Weasley said confused. Why had they gone on holiday when they were desperate for cash?

Tonks added this to her list of things to look into. Potions, compulsions all things listed to check.

**He picked up Ron's letter and unfolded it.**

**_Dear Harry, _**

**_Happy birthday! Look, I'm really sorry about that telephone call. I hope the Muggles didn't give you a hard time. I asked Dad, and he reckons I shouldn't have shouted. _**

**_It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff. _**

**_I couldn't believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it's gone on this trip, but they're going to buy me a new wand for next year. _**

**Harry remembered only too well the occasion when Ron's old wand had snapped. It had happened when the car the two of them had been flying to Hogwarts had crashed into a tree on the school grounds.**

_**We'll be back about a week before term starts and we'll be going up to London to get my wand and our new books. Any chance of meeting you there? Don't let the Muggles get you down!** _

**_Try and come to London, _**

**_Ron _**

_**P.S. Percy's Head Boy. He got the letter last week.** _

"Congratulations Percy Head Boy is an excellent achievement you should be proud but never arrogant." Sophia said and turned her heard as if to analysis him.

"Thank you Ma'am," Percy said beaming with pride but began shifting when she continued to watch him.

"Percy Weasley see me when we have a break I have a job offer for you." She finally said.

Percy stared at her and nodded unable to speak. He glanced at his family who were all looking at him with pride shining in their eyes. He sat just a little bit straighter.

**Harry glanced back at the photograph. Percy, who was in his seventh and final year at Hogwarts, was looking particularly smug.**

**He had pinned his Head Boy badge to the fez perched jauntily on top of his neat hair, his horn-rimmed glasses flashing in the Egyptian sun.**

**Harry now turned to his present and unwrapped it. Inside was what looked like a miniature glass spinning top.**

**There was another note from Ron beneath it.**

**_Harry — this is a Pocket Sneakoscope. If there's someone untrustworthy around, it's supposed to light up and spin. _**

"Good gift to have." Moody nodded approvingly many people forgetting he was there.

**_Bill says it's rubbish sold for wizard tourists and isn't reliable, because it kept lighting up at dinner last night. But he didn't realize Fred and George had put beetles in his soup. _**

**_Bye — Ron _**

**Harry put the Pocket Sneakoscope on his bedside table, where it stood quite still, balanced on its point, reflecting the luminous hands of his clock. He looked at it happily for a few seconds, then picked up the parcel Hedwig had brought.**

**Inside this, too, there was a wrapped present, a card, and a letter, this time from Hermione.**

**_Dear Harry, _**

**_Ron wrote to me and told me about his phone call to your Uncle Vernon. I do hope you're all right. _**

**_I'm on holiday in France at the moment and I didn't know how I was going to send this to you — what if they'd opened it at customs?_**

**— _but then Hedwig turned up!_**

**_I think she wanted to make sure you got something for your birthday for a change. I bought your present by owl-order; there was an advertisement in the Daily Prophet (I've been getting it delivered; it's so good to keep up with what's going on in the wizarding world). Did you see that picture of Ron and his family a week ago? I bet he's learning loads. I'm really jealous — the ancient Egyptian wizards were fascinating. _**

**_There's some interesting local history of witchcraft here, too. I've rewritten my whole History of Magic essay to include some of the things I've found out, I hope it's not too long — it's two rolls of parchment more than Professor Binns asked for. _**

**The staff shook their heads at this. Did the girl not realise her essays were as dull as paint drying there was no thought or opinion she had just simple re-wrote the text book.**

**_Ron says he's going to be in London in the last week of the holidays. Can you make it? Will your aunt and uncle let you come? I really hope you can. If not, I'll see you on the Hogwarts Express on September first! _**

**_Love from Hermione _**

_**P.S. Ron says Percy's Head Boy. I'll bet Percy's really pleased. Ron doesn't seem too happy **about it. _

Percy turned and glared at his youngest brother. _God he wanted to punch him_

**Harry laughed as he put Hermione's letter aside and picked up her present. It was very heavy. Knowing Hermione, he was sure it would be a large book full of very difficult spells**

**— but it wasn't. His heart gave a huge bound as he ripped back the paper and saw a sleek black leather case, with silver words stamped across it, reading **_**Broomstick Servicing Kit.** _

Harry smiled sadly at this it was a good gift.

**"Wow, Hermione!" Harry whispered, unzipping the case to look inside.**

**There was a large jar of Fleetwood's High-Finish Handle Polish, a pair of gleaming silver Tail-Twig Clippers, a tiny brass compass to clip on your broom for long journeys, and a _Handbook of Do-It-Yourself Broomcare. _**

**Apart from his friends, the thing that Harry missed most about Hogwarts was Quidditch, the most popular sport in the magical world**

The Quidditch nuts in the room began cheering loudly.

**— highly dangerous, very exciting, and played on broomsticks. Harry happened to be a very good Quidditch player; he had been the youngest person in a century to be picked for one of the Hogwarts House teams. One of Harry's most prized possessions was his Nimbus Two Thousand racing broom.**

**Harry put the leather case aside and picked up his last parcel. He recognized the untidy scrawl on the brown paper at once: this was from Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper. He tore off the top layer of paper and glimpsed something green and leathery, but before he could unwrap it properly, the parcel gave a strange quiver, and whatever was inside it snapped loudly — as though it had jaws.**

**Harry froze. He knew that Hagrid would never send him anything dangerous on purpose, but then, Hagrid didn't have a normal person's view of what was dangerous.**

Sophia beamed at Hagrid, "Thank you for sending him gifts Hagrid."

"It's no problem Ma'am Harry is my friend." Hagrid said gruffly

Harry beamed and jumped up and hugged him. Hagrid patted his head gently. "Thank you" Harry whispered into his chest before quickly running back to his chair. Sophia looked at him with pride shining in her eyes.

**Hagrid had been known to befriend giant spiders, buy vicious, three-headed dogs from men in pubs, and sneak illegal dragon eggs into his cabin.**

Harry poked the parcel nervously.

Fred snorts, "You poked it."

"Why would you poke it?"

"Poking it." The twins finish together, snorting some more.

**It snapped loudly again. Harry reached for the lamp on his bedside table, gripped it firmly in one hand, and raised it over his head, ready to strike. Then he seized the rest of the wrapping paper in his other hand and pulled.**

**And out fell — a book.**

**Harry just had time to register its handsome green cover, emblazoned with the golden title _The Monster Book of Monsters_, before it flipped onto its edge and scuttled sideways along the bed like some weird crab.**

**"Uh-oh," Harry muttered. The book toppled off the bed with a loud clunk and shuffled rapidly across the room.**

Those who had this book groaned in remembrance while rubbing the long faded bite marks.

**Harry followed it stealthily. The book was hiding in the dark space under his desk. Praying that the Dursleys were still fast asleep, Harry got down on his hands and knees and reached toward it.**

**"Ouch!"**

**The book snapped shut on his hand and then flapped past him, still scuttling on its covers. Harry scrambled around, threw himself forward, and managed to flatten it. Uncle Vernon gave a loud, sleepy grunt in the room next door.**

**Hedwig and Errol watched interestedly as Harry clamped the struggling book tightly in his arms, hurried to his chest of drawers, and pulled out a belt, which he buckled tightly around it.**

**The Monster Book shuddered angrily, but could no longer flap and snap, so Harry threw it down on the bed and reached for Hagrid's card.**

**_Dear Harry, _**

**_Happy Birthday! _**

**_Think you might find this useful for next year. Won't say no more here. Tell you when I see you. _**

**_Hope the Muggles are treating you right. _**

**_All the best, _**

**_Hagrid _**

**It struck Harry as ominous that Hagrid thought a biting book would come in useful, but he put Hagrid's card up next to Ron's and Hermione's, grinning more broadly than ever. Now there was only the letter from Hogwarts left.**

**Noticing that it was rather thicker than usual, Harry slit open the envelope, pulled out the first page of parchment within, and read:**

_**Dear Mr. Potter,** _

**_Please note that the new school year will begin on September the first. The Hogwarts Express will leave from King's Cross station, platform nine and three-quarters, at eleven o'clock. _**

**_Third years are permitted to visit the village of Hogsmeade on certain weekends. Please give the enclosed permission form to your parent or guardian to sign. _**

**_A list of books for next year is enclosed. _**

**_Yours sincerely,__  
__Professor M. McGonagall _**

_**Deputy Headmistress** _

Sophia sighed poor Harry he just couldn't catch a break.

**Harry pulled out the Hogsmeade permission form and looked at it, no longer grinning.**

"Way to ruin the kids birthday." Lee Jordan spoke up.

**It would be wonderful to visit Hogsmeade on weekends; he knew it was an entirely wizarding village, and he had never set foot there. But how on earth was he going to persuade Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia to sign the form?**

**He looked over at the alarm clock. It was now two o'clock in the morning.**

**Deciding that he'd worry about the Hogsmeade form when he woke up, Harry got back into bed and reached up to cross off another day on the chart he'd made for himself, counting down the days left until his return to Hogwarts. Then he took off his glasses and lay down; eyes open, facing his three birthday cards.**

**Extremely unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter felt just like everyone else — glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.**

Sophia leaned down and kissed Harry on the head.

"Don't worry hunni I have big plans for this year's birthday you are going to love it."

Harry beamed up at her. While those around him whispered excitedly wondering just what would happen.

"That's the end of the book" Hannah spoke up.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N – Another chapter for you my lovelies. I'm kind of bored now so going to watch a movie instead lol. Not sure when I will upload again but don't worry I will never abandon this story. My other story I have hit a road block don't expect me to upload anytime soon with this one.

Disclaimer – I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER – this is purely for fun and my own amusement. No money is made from this.

...

"So who wants to read next?" Sophia asked

"Me Me ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME" George shouted bouncing up and down waving his hands frantically in the air.

"No one wants to volunteer?" Sophia asked looking around trying hard now to laugh

"Hey!" he shouted crossing his arms and pouting

Everyone roared with laughter as she levitated him the book.

**CHAPTER NINE - GRIM DEFEAT** George read confused.

Sophia sighed. "Ok so we skipped 8 chapters let me re-cap for you. No interruptions though. Let see Aunt Marge comes to visit and taunts Harry about his dead parents. He blows her up, brilliant by the way Harry. He then decides to run away and accidently summons the night bus where he finds out about Sirius Black. Hhmm Minister Fudge meets him at the Leaky Cauldron and lets him off for accidental magic. Harry then spends the next two weeks in Diagon Alley. Weasel & Granger turn up. Scabbers the rat is sick. Dementors search the train and poor Harry passes out due to the bad memories. Divination class is completely useless and I have no idea why you even took it since it's for Seers. Hagrids first class does not go well. (she glares at Draco here who blanches) The students all except Harry fight a boggart in DADA. Harry is not allowed to go to hogsmead and Sirius Black slashes the fat ladies portrait. I think that's everything. Any questions?"

She pauses and looks around everyone is too shocked to speak up so she just waves George on to continue who shakes his head and begins.

**Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.**

**"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important.**

Sophia chuckled at this.

**"Send word with one of the ghosts." Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."**

**One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.**

Most of the students grinned, that had been so awesome, sleeping under the stars like that.

"I have idea why don't we have a giant sleep over in the great hall when all the books are finished for a celebration." Sophia said.

The hall cheered with everyone becoming excited.

Sophia chuckled at them, "Someone remind me I have said this." She glanced at Percy and he quickly wrote it down. She beamed at him yes he would do well with the job she had for him

**"Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.**

**The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors were telling the rest of the school what had just happened. .**

**"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"**

"Yeah like that's going to happen." Lee Jordan snickered.

**"C'mon," Ron said to Harry and Hermione; they seized three sleeping bags and dragged them into a corner.**

**"Do you think Black's still in the castle?" Hermione whispered anxiously.**

**"Dumbledore obviously thinks he might be," said Ron.**

**"It's very lucky he picked tonight, you know," said Hermione as they climbed fully dressed into their sleeping bags and propped themselves on their elbows to talk. "The one night we weren't in the tower..."**

**"I reckon he's lost track of time, being on the run," said Ron. "Didn't realize it was Halloween.**

_Oh, I knew, that exactly why I chose that night. _Sirius thought.

**Otherwise he'd have come bursting in here."**

**Hermione shuddered. All around them, people were asking one another the same question:**

**"How did he get in?"**

**The "Maybe he knows how to Apparate," said a Ravenclaw a few feet away, "Just appear out of thin air, you know."**

"I thought Ravenclaw was supposed to be the smart house." Sophia asked looking confused, while the Ravenclaws shifting in their seats. These books were bring to light all of their faults they couldn't decide if it was a good thing or not.

**"Disguised himself, probably," said a Hufflepuff fifth year.**

**"He could've flown in," suggested Dean Thomas.**

**"Honestly, am I the only person who's ever bothered to read Hogwarts, A History?" said Hermione crossly to Harry and Ron.**

**"Probably," said Ron. "Why?"**

**"Because the castle's protected by more than walls, you know," said Hermione. "There are all sorts of enchantments on it, to stop people entering by stealth. You can't just Apparate in here. And I'd like to see the disguise that could fool those dementors.**

**They're guarding every single entrance to the grounds. They'd have seen him fly in too. And Fitch knows all the secret passages; they'll have them covered..."**

Fred, George, Harry & Remus all burst out laughing at this statement.

"**The lights are going out now!" Percy shouted. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"**

Most of the students snorted at his naivety and delusions of grandeur.

**The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. What with that, and the whispering that still filled the hall, Harry felt as though he were sleeping outdoors in a light wind.**

**Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the hall to check that everything was quiet. Around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, Professor Dumbledore came in. Harry watched him looking around for Percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking.**

**Percy was only a short way away from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who quickly pretended to be asleep as Dumbledore's footsteps drew nearer.**

Sophia shook her head glancing at Harry.

**"Any sign of him, Professor?" asked Percy in a whisper.**

**"No. All well here?"**

**"Everything under control, sir."**

**"Good. There's no point moving them all now. I've found a temporary guardian for the Gryffindor portrait hole. You'll be able to move them back in tomorrow."**

**"And the Fat Lady, sir?"**

**"Hiding in a map of Argyllshire on the second floor. Apparently she refused to let Black in without the password, so he attacked. She's still very distressed, but once she's calmed down, I'll have Mr. Filch restore her."**

**Harry heard the door of the hall creak open again, and more footsteps.**

**"Headmaster?"**

**It was Snape. Harry kept quite still, listening hard. .**

"Harry" Sophia said looking at him.

"Sorry but if people told me what was going on then I wouldn't have to listen in especially when this is about me." Harry replied evenly.

"hhmm remind me to put up strong silencing wards around the castle. Can't have you knowing all my secrets." Sophia chuckled.

**"The whole of the third floor has been searched. He's not there. And Filch has done the dungeons; nothing there either."**

**"What about the Astronomy tower? Professor Trelawney's room? The Owlery?"**

**"All searched."**

**"Very well, Severus. I didn't really expect Black to linger."**

**"Have you any theory as to how he got in, Professor?" asked Snape.**

**Harry raised his head very slightly off his arms to free his other ear.**

**"Many, Severus, each of them as unlikely as the next."**

"That's a load of rubbish he clearly knew" Madam Bones spoke up, "the castle wards would have alerted him."

Glares were directed to him

**Harry opened his eyes a fraction and squinted up to where they stood; Dumbledore's back was to him, but he could see Percy's face, rapt with attention, and Snape's profile, which looked angry.**

**"You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before - ah - the start of term?" said Snape, who was barely opening his lips, as though trying to block Percy out of the conversation.**

**"I do, Severus," said Dumbledore, and there was something like warning in his voice.**

**"It seems - almost impossible - that Black could have entered the school without inside help.**

**I did express my concerns when, you appointed -"**

**"I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it," said Dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn't reply. "I must go down to the dementors," said Dumbledore. 'I said I would inform them when our search was complete."**

**"Didn't they want to help, sit?" said Percy.**

**"Oh yes," said Dumbledore coldly. "But I'm afraid no dementor will cross the threshold of this castle while I am headmaster."**

"They should have never been anywhere near our children in the first place." Mrs Malfoy growled and glared at Fudge along with every other mother and member of staff in the room

**Percy looked slightly abashed.**

**Dumbledore left the hall, walking quickly and quietly. Snape stood for a moment, watching the headmaster with an expression of deep resentment on his face; then he too left. Harry glanced sideways at Ron and Hermione. Both of them had their eyes open too, reflecting the starry ceiling.**

**"What was all that about?" Ron mouthed.**

**The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days.**

**The theories about how he had entered the castle became wilder and wilder;**

**Hannah Abbott, from Hufflepuff, spent much of their next Herbology class telling anyone who'd listen that Black could turn into a flowering shrub.**

Said girl blushed furiously at this.

**The Fat Lady's ripped canvas had been taken off the wall and Replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat gray pony.**

The Gryffindor's who had to suffer with this groaned loudly much to everyone else's amusement.

**Nobody was very happy about this.**

**Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed at least twice a day.**

**"He's a complete lunatic," said Seamus Finnigan angrily to Percy. "Can't we get anyone else?"**

**"None of the other pictures wanted the job," said Percy. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer."**

**"Or the dumbest." Charlie muttered to Bill next to him.**

**Sir Cadogan, however, was the least of Harry's worries. He was now being closely watched.**

**Teachers found excuses to walk along corridors with him, and Percy Weasley (acting, Harry suspected, on his mother's orders) was tailing him everywhere like an extremely pompous guard dog.**

**To cap it all, Professor McGonagall summoned Harry into her office, with such a sombre expression on her face Harry thought someone must have died.**

Harry began growling at this and glared at the floor his magic crackling around him dangerously. Sirius curled up in a ball next to him and Harry began to stroke him trying to relax.

"**There's no point hiding it from you any longer, Potter," she said in a very serious voice. "I know this will come as a shock to you, but Sirius Black -"**

**"I know he's after me," said Harry wearily. "I heard Ron's dad telling his mum. Mr. Weasley works for the Ministry of Magic."**

**Professor McGonagall seemed very taken aback.**

**She stared at Harry for a moment or two, then said, "I see! Well, in that case, Potter, you'll understand why I don't think it's a good idea for you to be practising Quidditch in the evenings.**

The Gryffindor team stop up on mass and began screaming at the staff table.

**Out on the field with only your team members, it's very exposed, Potter -"**

**"We've got our first match on Saturday!" said Harry, outraged. "I've got to train, Professor!"**

**Professor McGonagall considered him intently. Harry knew she was deeply interested in the Gryffindor team's prospects; it had been she, after all, who'd suggested him as Seeker in the first place.**

**He waited, holding his breath.**

**"Hmm..." Professor McGonagall stood up and stared out of the window at the Quidditch field, just visible through the rain. "Well... goodness knows, I'd like to see us win the Cup at last... but all the same, Potter... I'd be happier if a teacher were present. I'll ask Madam Hooch to oversee your training sessions."**

Sophia shook her head, what on earth was wrong with this one preferring a trophy to a student's safety.

**The weather worsened steadily as the first Quidditch match drew nearer. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team was training harder than ever under the eye of Madam Hooch. Then, at their final training session before Saturday's match, Oliver Wood gave his team some unwelcome news.**

**"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking very angry.**

**"Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."**

**"Why?" chorused the rest of the team.**

**"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured," said Wood, grinding his teeth furiously. "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances..."**

**There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Wood spoke, they heard a distant rumble of thunder.**

**"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" said Harry furiously. "He's faking it!"**

Draco blushed furiously at this and his mother smacked him around the back of his head. Everyone around him snickered quietly.

**"I know that, but we can't prove it," said Wood bitterly, "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new Captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory -"**

Everyone bowed their heads in respect to the lost boy. Harry sniffed quietly and hugged Sirius close to him.

**Angelina, Alicia, and Katie suddenly giggled.**

**"What?" said Wood, frowning at this light-hearted behaviour.**

**"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" said Angelina.**

**"Strong and silent," said Katie, and they started to giggle again.**

**"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," said Fred impatiently.**

Fred held his hands in the air, "Sorry I didn't mean that"

**"I don't know why you're worried, Oliver, Hufflepuff is a pushover.**

**Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"**

**"We were playing in completely different conditions!" Wood shouted, his eyes bulging slightly.**

**"Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"**

**"Oliver, calm down!" said Fred, looking slightly alarmed.**

**"We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."**

**The day before the match, the winds reached howling point and the rain fell harder than ever. It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit. The Slytherin team was looking very smug indeed, and none more so than Malfoy. .**

**"Ah, if only my arm was feeling a bit better!" he sighed as the gale outside pounded the windows.**

Growls were heard around the room.

Harry smirked and smacked Draco with the pillow next to him. Bursting out laughing when Draco rolled back.

**Harry had no room in his head to worry about anything except the match tomorrow. Oliver Wood kept hurrying up to him between classes and giving him tips.**

**The third time this happened, Wood talked for so long that Harry suddenly realized he was ten minutes late for Defence Against the Dark Arts,and set off at a run with Wood shouting after him, "Diggory's got a very fast swerve, Harry, so you might want to try looping him -"**

**Harry skidded to a halt outside the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, pulled the door open, and dashed inside.**

**"Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin. I -"**

"Oh no what now," several people muttered

**But it wasn't Professor Lupin who looked up at him from the teacher's desk; it was Snape.**

Groans filled the hall

**"This lesson began ten minutes ago, Potter, so I think we'll make it ten points from Gryffindor. Sit down."**

**But Harry didn't move.**

**"Where's Professor Lupin?" he said.**

**"He says he is feeling too ill to teach today," said Snape with a twisted smile.**

"Severus" Sophia said shaking her head at him.

Harry sat angrily on the floor his fist clenched tightly

**"I believe I told you to sit down?" But Harry stayed where he was.**

**"What's wrong with him?" Snape's black eyes glittered.**

**"Nothing life-threatening," he said, looking as though he wished it were.**

"Severus" The staff shouted at him. He didn't look at them though he was simply staring at the ceiling god he hated his life.

**"Five more points from Gryffindor, and if I have to ask you to sit down again, it will be fifty."**

**Harry walked slowly to his seat and sat down. Snape looked around at the class.**

**"As I was saying before Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far -"**

"Yes I did and I also know that Minerva talked to you and told you where it was." Remus said in a low growl and the hall turned to glare at the potions master.

**"Please, sir, we've done boggarts, Red Caps, kappas, and grindylows," said Hermione quickly, "and we're just about to start -"**

**"Be quiet," said Snape coldly. "I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin's lack of organization."**

**"He's the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we've ever had," said Dean Thomas boldly,and there was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the class. Snape looked more menacing than ever.**

Everyone that had, had Remus as a teach stood up and clapped. Remus blushed furiously and tried hiding his face.

Tonks beamed at him and kissed his cheek softly.

"See you were an excellent teacher by the looks of it." She whispered quietly.

**"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly overtaxing you. I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and grindylows.**

**Today we shall discuss -" Harry watched him flick through the textbook, to the very back chapter, which he must know they hadn't covered. "Werewolves," said Snape.**

Sirius and Remus were both growling now.

**"But, sir," said Hermione, seemingly unable to restrain herself, "we're not supposed to do werewolves yet, we're due to start hinkypunks -"**

**"Miss Granger," said Snape in a voice of deadly calm, "I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson, not you. And I am telling you all to turn to page 394." He glanced around again. 'All of you! Now!"**

**With many bitter sidelong looks and some sullen muttering, the class opened their books.**

**"Which of you can tell me how we distinguish between the werewolf and the true wolf?" said Snape.**

**Everyone sat in motionless silence; everyone except Hermione, whose hand, as it so often did, had shot straight into the air.**

"You would think she would give other people a chance to try and learn wouldn't you. Seems the class don't even bother making the effort anymore." Madam Bones commented watching the girl.

**Hermione was glaring at the table trying to come up with a plan. Maybe if she pretended she was sorry, that she was manipulated then Harry would forgive her. Her only problem was this so called Lady Rosewood she would have to research this.**

**"Anyone?" Snape said, ignoring twisted smile was back.**

**"Are you telling me that Professor Lupin hasn't even taught you the basic distinction between -"**

**"We told you," said Parvati suddenly, "we haven't got as far as werewolves yet, we're still on -"**

**"Silence!" snarled Snape. "Well, well, well, I never thought I'd meet a third-year class who wouldn't even recognize a werewolf when they saw one. I shall make a point of informing Professor Dumbledore how very behind you all are..."**

**"Please, sir," said Hermione, whose hand was still in the air, "the werewolf differs from the true wolf in several small ways. The snout of the werewolf -"**

**"That is the second time you have spoken out of turn, Miss Granger," said Snape coolly. "Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all."**

"SEVERUS SNAPE YOU DO NOT SPEAK TO STUDENTS IN THE MANOR I HAVE A GOOD MIND TO TAKE YOU OVER MY KNEE YOUNG MAN." Professor McGonagall said hands on her hips she stood glaring at him.

Severus shifted in his seat and glared at the floor. He had, had enough no longer would he be a door mat for these people. It was time he become his own master.

Standing up he stood directly facing her, "Don't you dare start on at me. I hate teaching! I hate this job. I have to do exactly what the old coot says or I have two options I disappear or spend the rest of my life in a high security cell in Azkaban prison. I DID WHAT I WAS TOLD. BUT NO MORE I AM DONE. FIND A NEW POTIONS MASTER AND PUPPET ID RATHER GO TO ASKABAN THAN PUT UP WITH THIS." Severus was completely out of breath by this and McGonagall flushed sitting down thinking.

Sophia quickly stood up and pulled him into her arms. She wrapped her hands tightly around his waist pulling him flush against her. Leaning up she kissed his forehead, his cheeks and finally the tip of his nose. "Severus calm down people your magic is lashing out. Please calm down." She stared him straight in the eyes pleading with him.

Severus was completely shocked she had just soothed him in front of everyone. Closing his eyes he focused on his shields pushing his emotions away for later. Taking a deep breath he nodded and pulled her down onto the sofa with him. "Thank you." He whispered softly to her.

The students watched all this with mouths hanging open.

**Hermione went very red, put down her hand, and stared at the floor with her eyes full of tears.**

**It was a mark of how much the class loathed Snape that they were all glaring at him, because every one of them had called Hermione a know-it-all at least once, and Ron, who told Hermione she was a know-it-all at least twice a week, said loudly, "You asked us a question and she knows the answer! Why ask if you don't want to be told?"**

**The class knew instantly he'd gone too far. Snape advanced on Ron slowly, and the room held its breath.**

**"Detention, Weasley," Snape said silkily, his face very close to Ron's. "And if I ever hear you criticize the way I teach a class again, you will be very sorry indeed."**

**Severus sighed massaging his temples**

**No one made a sound throughout the rest of the lesson. They sat and made notes on werewolves from the textbook, while Snape prowled up and down the rows of desks, examining the work they had been doing with Professor Lupin.**

**"Very poorly explained... That is incorrect, the kappa is more commonly found in Mongolia...**

**Professor Lupin gave this eight out of ten? I wouldn't have given it three..."**

**When the bell rang at last, Snape held them back.**

**"You will each write an essay, to be handed in to me, on the ways you recognize and kill werewolves. I want two rolls of parchment on the subject, and I want them by Monday morning.**

"Substitutes cannot do that." Professor Flitwick said angrily.

**It is time somebody took this class in hand. Weasley, stay behind, we need to arrange your detention."**

**Harry and Hermione left the room with the rest of the class, who waited until they were well out of earshot, then burst into a furious tirade about Snape.**

Harry was sat thinking quietly about Severus. He knew the man had apologised to him and he seemed to be different now but it has only been a week since the man stopped treating him like dirt. The best approach would be to wait and see.

**"Snape's never been like this with any of our other Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, even if he did want the job," Harry said to Hermione. "Why's he got it in for Lupin? D'you think this is all because of the boggart?"**

**"I don't know," said Hermione pensively. "But I really hope Professor Lupin gets better soon..."**

**Ron caught up with them five minutes later, in a towering rage.**

**"D'you know what that -" (he called Snape something that made Hermione say "Ron!") "-**

**is making me do? I've got to scrub out the bedpans in the hospital wing. Without magic!" He was breathing deeply, his fists clenched. "Why couldn't Black have hidden in Snape's office, eh? He could have finished him off for us!"**

Sophia growled and sent an over powder stinging hex at the boy who yelped.

Severus looked at her shock and she just beamed at him.

**Harry woke extremely early the next morning; so early that it was till dark. For a moment he thought the roaring of the wind had woken him. Then he felt a cold breeze on the back of his neck and sat bolt upright - Peeves the Poltergeist had been floating next to him, blowing hard in his ear.**

**"What did you do that for?" said Harry furiously.**

**Peeves puffed out his cheeks, blew hard, and zoomed backward out of the room, cackling.**

**Harry fumbled for his alarm clock and looked at it. It was half past four.**

**" Cursing Peeves, he rolled over and tried to get back to sleep, but it was very difficult, now that he was awake, to ignore the sounds of the thunder rumbling overhead, the pounding of the wind against the castle walls, and the distant creaking of the trees in the Forbidden Forest. In a few hours he would be out on the Quidditch field, battling through that gale. Finally, he gave up any thought of more sleep, got up, dressed, picked up his Nimbus Two Thousand, and walked quietly out of the dormitory. As Harry opened the door, something brushed against his leg. He bent down just in time to grab Crookshanks by the end of his bushy tail and drag him outside.**

**"You know, I reckon Ron was right about you," Harry told Crookshanks suspiciously. "There are plenty of mice around this place - go and chase them. Go on," he added, nudging Crookshanks down the spiral staircase with his foot. "Leave Scabbers alone."**

Harry, Remus, Sirius all growled at the mention of the rat.

**The noise of the storm was even louder in the common room. Harry knew better than to think the match would be cancelled; Quidditch matches weren't called off for trifles like thunderstorms. Nevertheless, he was starting to feel very apprehensive. Wood had pointed out Cedric Diggory to him in the corridor; Diggory was a fifth year and a lot bigger than Harry.**

**Seekers were usually light and speedy, but Diggory's weight would be an advantage in this weather because he was less likely to be blown off course.**

**Harry whiled away the hours until dawn in front of the fire, getting up every now and then to stop Crookshanks from sneaking up the boys, staircase again. At long last Harry thought it must be time for breakfast, so he headed through the portrait hole alone.**

**"Stand and fight, you mangy cur!" yelled Sir Cadogan.**

**"Oh, shut up," Harry yawned.**

**He revived a bit over a large bowl of porridge, and by the time he'd started on toast, the rest of the team had turned up.**

**"It's going to be a tough one," said Wood, who wasn't eating anything.**

**"Stop worrying, Oliver," said Alicia soothingly, "we don't mind a bit of rain."**

**But it was considerably more than a bit of rain. Such was the popularity of Quidditch that the whole school turned out to watch the match as usual, but they ran down the lawns toward the Quidditch field, heads bowed against the ferocious wind, umbrellas being whipped out of their hands as they went. Just before he entered the locker room, Harry saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, laughing and pointing at him from under an enormous umbrella on their way to the stadium.**

Harry punched Draco in the arm.

"Ow Harry I'm sorry all rite quit with the hitting." Draco wined at him

"Hhmm Ill consider it. Harry said smirking

**The team changed into their scarlet robes and waited for Wood's usual pre-match pep talk, but it didn't come. He tried to speak several times, made an odd gulping noise, then shook his head hopelessly and beckoned them to follow him.**

**The wind was so strong that they staggered sideways as they walked out onto the field. If the crowd was cheering, they couldn't hear it over the fresh rolls of thunder. Rain was splattering over Harry's glasses. How on earth was he going to see the Snitch in this?**

**The Hufflepuffs were approaching from the opposite side of the field, wearing canary-yellow robes. The Captains walked up to each other and shook hands; Diggory smiled at Wood but Wood no, looked as though he had lockjaw and merely nodded.**

**Harry saw Madam Hooch's mouth form the words, "Mount your brooms."**

**He pulled his right foot out of the mud with a squelch and swung it over his Nimbus Two Thousand. Madam Hooch put her whistle to her lips and gave it a blast that sounded shrill and distant they were off Harry rose fast, but his Nimbus was swerving slightly with the wind.**

The parents in the room glared at the staff table how could they allow there children to play in these conditions

**He held it as steady as he could and turned, squinting into the rain. Within five minutes Harry was soaked to his skin and frozen, hardly able to see his teammates, let alone the tiny Snitch. He flew backward and forward across the field past blurred red and yellow shapes, with no idea of what was happening in the rest of the game. He couldn't hear the commentary over the wind.**

**The crowd was hidden beneath a sea of cloaks and battered umbrellas. Twice Harry came very close to being unseated by a Bludger; his vision was so clouded by the rain on his glasses he hadn't seen them coming. He lost track of time. It was getting harder and harder to hold his broom straight. The sky was getting darker, as though night had decided to come early. Twice Harry nearly hit another player, without knowing whether it was a teammate or opponent; everyone was now so wet, and the rain so thick, he could hardly tell them apart... With the first flash of lightning came the sound of Madam Hooch's whistle; Harry could just see the outline of Wood through the thick rain, gesturing him to the ground. The whole team splashed down into the mud.**

"We should have reschedule it." Pomona and Minerva muttered.

**"I called for time-out!" Wood roared at his team. "Come on, under here -"**

**They huddled at the edge of the field under a large umbrella; Harry took off his glasses and wiped them hurriedly on his robes.**

**"What's the score?"**

**"We're fifty points up," said Wood, "but unless we get the Snitch soon, we'll be playing into the night."**

**"I've got no chance with these on," Harry said exasperatedly, waving his glasses.**

"Don't worry sweety we can get your eyes fixed for you." Sophia said

"Really?" Harry asked excited

Sophia nodded and Harry fist pumped the air shouting "YES"

**At that very moment, Hermione appeared at his shoulder;**

**she was holding her cloak over her head and was, inexplicably, beaming.**

**"I've had an idea, Harry! Give me your glasses, quick!"**

**He handed them to her, and as the team watched in amazement, Hermione tapped them with her wand and said, "Impervius!"**

**"There!" she said, handing them back to Harry. "They'll repel water!"**

**Wood looked as though he could have kissed her.**

**"Brilliant!" he called hoarsely after her as she disappeared into the crowd. "Okay, team, let's go for it!"**

**Hermione's spell had done the trick. Harry was still numb with cold, still wetter than he'd ever been in his life, but he could see. Full of fresh determination, he urged his broom through the turbulent air, staring in every direction for the Snitch, avoiding a Bludger, ducking beneath Diggory, who was streaking in the opposite direction...**

**There was another clap of thunder, followed immediately by forked lightning. This was getting more and more dangerous. Harry needed to get the Snitch quickly - He turned, intending to head back toward the middle of the field, but at that moment, another flash of lightning illuminated the stands, and Harry saw something that distracted him completely , the silhouette of an enormous shaggy black dog, clearly imprinted against the sky, motionless in the topmost, empty row of seats.**

Sirius whimpered and Harry began stroking him again along with Luna who was humming softly.

**Harry's numb hands slipped on the broom handle and his Nimbus dropped a few feet. Shaking his sodden bangs out of his eyes, he squinted back into the stands. The dog had vanished.**

If a dog could give a sheepish smile then Snuffles was.

**"Harry!" came Wood's anguished yell from the Gryffindor goal posts. "Harry, behind you!"**

**Harry looked wildly around. Cedric Diggory was pelting up the field, and a tiny speck of gold was shimmering in the rain-filled air between them - With a jolt of panic, Harry threw himself flat to the broom handle and zoomed toward the Snitch.**

**"Come on!" he growled at his Nimbus as the rain whipped his face. 'Faster!"**

**But something odd was happening. An eerie silence was falling across the stadium. The wind, though as strong as ever, was forgetting to roar. It was as though someone had turned off the sound, as though Harry had gone suddenly deaf - what was going on?**

"Harry come here now." Sophia snapped and Harry shocked quickly moved over to her. Sophia pulled him onto the Sophia in between her and Severus wrapping her arms around him and whispered to him what was happening. Harry's face drained of colour.

**And then a horribly familiar wave of cold swept over him, inside him, just as he became aware of something moving on the field below... Before he'd had time to think, Harry had taken his eyes off the Snitch and looked down. At least a hundred dementors, their hidden faces pointing up at him, were standing beneath him.**

**It was as though freezing water were rising in his chest, cutting at his insides. And then he heard it again... Someone was screaming, screaming inside his head... a woman...**

**"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"**

**"Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now..."**

**"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead -"**

**Numbing, swirling white mist was filling Harry's brain... What was he doing? Why was he flying?**

**He needed to help her... She was going to die... She was going to be murdered...**

A small sob escaped Harry and Sophia pulled him closer, almost every girl in the hall had tears in their eyes and the boys shifted from side to side. Sophia sat rocking Harry gently back and forth sending waves of calming magic to surround him. Severus heart was breaking watching them; he shifted so that he had his arms surrounding both of them. Sophia was extremely grateful for Severus right now, it was taking her complete control not to break down. How did you react to knowing that someone heard their mother being murdered and Draco felt more guilty than ever, like something was forcing it's out of his stomach sideways.

**He was falling, falling through the icy mist.**

**"Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy..."**

Tonks had her arms wrapped around Remus who was openly crying on her shoulder, "my poor cub" he repeated over and over.

Sirius was shaking and Luna had her arms around him whispering in the dogs ear soothing him.

"It's ok baby we got you. Come on Harry just breath you are safe. You are loved, sweety." Sophia whispered to him rocking him softly.

**A shrill voice was laughing, the woman was screaming, and Harry knew no more.**

Those in the hall who hadn't known what happened were staring at the book and Harry in horror.

**"Lucky the ground was so soft."**

**"I thought he was dead for sure."**

Gasped were heard all around the room.

**"But he didn't even break his glasses."**

**Harry could hear the voices whispering, but they made no sense whatsoever. He didn't have a clue where he was, or how he'd got there, or what he'd been doing before he got there.**

**All he knew was that every inch of him was aching as though it had been beaten.**

**"That was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life."**

**Scariest... the scariest thing... hooded black figures... cold ... screaming...**

**Harry's eyes snapped open. He was lying in the hospital wing.**

**The Gryffindor Quidditch team, spattered with mud from head to foot, was gathered around his bed. Ron and Hermione were also there, looking as though they'd just climbed out of a swimming pool.**

**"Harry!" said Fred, who looked extremely white underneath the mud.**

**"How're you feeling?"**

**It was as though Harry's memory was on fast forward. The lightning - the Grim**

Snuffles gave and apologetic whimper causing Harry to run his threw the thick fur.

**the Snitch - and the dementors...**

**"What happened?" he said, sitting up so suddenly they all gasped.**

**"You fell off," said Fred. "Must've fifty feet?"been - what - **

**"We thought you'd died," said Alicia, who was shaking.**

Sophia squeezed Harry tighter towards her. He was starting to relax now she could feel the sobs stop but she refused to let him go.

**Hermione made a small, squeaky noise. Her eyes were extremely bloodshot.**

**"But the match," said Harry. "What happened? Are we doing a replay?"**

**No one said anything. The horrible truth sank into Harry like a stone.**

**"We didn't - lose?"**

**"Diggory got the Snitch," said George. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Wanted a rematch.**

**But they won fair and square... even Wood admits it."**

**"Where is Wood?" said Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there.**

**"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."**

Fred and George shook their heads at this Oliver was such an idiot.

**Harry put his face to his knees, his hands gripping his hair. Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly.**

**"Harry this was not your fault never blame yourself for this." Sophia said firmly to him. She felt him nod against her.**

**"C'mon, Harry, you've never missed the Snitch before."**

**"There had to be one time you didn't get it," said George.**

**"It's not over yet," said Fred. "We lost by a hundred points"**

**"Right? So if Hufflepuff loses to Ravenclaw and we beat Ravenclaw and Slytherin -."**

**"Hufflepuff'll have to lose by at least two hundred points," said George. "But if they beat Ravenclaw..."**

**"No Way, Ravenclaw is too good.**

**But if Slytherin loses against Hufflepuff..."**

**"It all depends on the points - a margin of a hundred either way."**

**Harry lay there, not saying a word. They had lost... for the first time ever, he had lost a Quidditch match.**

**After ten minutes or so, Madam Pomfrey came over to tell the team to leave him in peace.**

**"We'll come and see you later," Fred told him. "Don't beat yourself up, Harry, you're still the best Seeker we've ever had."**

"Dam right he is." Fred shouted.

"He really should go Pro" Charlie said nodding in agreement.

**The team trooped out, trailing mud behind them. Madam Pomfrey shut the door behind them, looking disapproving. Ron and Hermione moved nearer to Harry's bed.**

**"Dumbledore was really angry," Hermione said in a quaking voice.**

"I don't see why he must have adjusted the wards for them even to come onto the grounds." Sophia said.

As one the hall glared at him in outrage.

**"I've never seen him like that before. He ran onto the field as you fell, waved his wand, and you sort of slowed down before you hit the ground. Then he whirled his wand at the dementors. Shot silver stuff at them. They left the stadium right away... He was furious they'd come onto the grounds. We heard him -"**

**"Then he magicked you onto a stretcher," said Ron. "And walked up to school with you floating on it. Everyone thought you were -"**

**His voice faded, but Harry hardly noticed. He was thinking about what the dementors had done to him... about the screaming voice.**

Sophia kissed Harrys head and rubbed soothing circles in his back still rocking him.

**He looked up and saw Ron and Hermione looking, at him so anxiously that he quickly cast around for something matter-of-fact to say.**

**"Did someone get my Nimbus?"**

**Ron and Hermione looked quickly at each other.**

**"Er -"**

**"What?" said Harry, looking from one to the other.**

**"Well... when you fell off, it got blown away," said Hermione hesitantly.**

**"And?"**

**"And it hit - it hit - oh, Harry - it hit the Whomping Willow."**

**Harry's insides lurched. The Whomping Willow was a very violent tree that stood alone in the middle of the grounds.**

**"And?" he said, dreading the answer.**

**"Well, you know the Whomping Willow," said Ron. "It - it doesn't like being hit."**

**"Professor Flitwick brought it back just before you came around," said Hermione in a very small voice.**

**Slowly, she reached down for a bag at her feet, turned it upside down, and tipped a dozen bits of splintered wood and twig onto the bed, the only remains of Harry's faithful, finally beaten broomstick.**

Everyone looked sadly at Harry.

"I still have the pieces," he said quietly."

"That's the end of the chapter," George said frowning.

"I think that we should take the rest of the day off so everyone can get some fresh air. Madam Umbridge now would be a good time to hold your detentions." Sophia said

She motioned for Severus to carry Harry and the three of them along with Remus and Sirius quickly left the great hall.


	24. Chapter 24

**Response to reviews:**

.96780– thank you for the review. I sometimes forget when I write how old they are all supposed to be. I guess with Harry I see him acting like a small child one that is starved for affection and will take any he can get. Also with Draco well he is a mummy's boy her little dragon haha

Thank you to everyone that reviews I love reading them. Oh and Sophia will only have one life partner not two.

**Disclaimer** – I do not own Harry Potter or its world. This all belongs to JK Rowling this is purely for fun.

...

**Chapter – Time to relax**

Arriving outside the room of requirement she motioned for Severus to place Harry down on the floor. Sophia bent down so she can face him. Gently taking his hands in hers she waited for him to look up at her.

"Harry let us help you, please don't hold it bottled in side it will only make it worse." Sophia said watching him carefully.

Harry looked around at them all and his eyes finally settled on Sophia. He took a deep breath before speaking. "I just want to be normal... to be known as just Harry... I want a family who loves me and take cares of me. Sometimes I wish I died with my parents that night." Sirius and Remus both gasped hearing this as tears streamed down their faces.

Sophia pulled him into her arms and just held him while he cried. Together they stood for at least five minutes before Harry managed to get himself under control. He pulled back from her and Sophia gently whipped the tears from his cheeks. "I bet you feel lighter now," at his nod she continued, "I think what we need is to spend the rest of the day just having fun and getting to know each other. We need to relax and have fun with not one thought about anything else." Sophia said. Harry beamed at her that is exactly what he needed a day to forget, to be happy, to be a normal kid for once.

Sophia stood up and beamed at them all, "I have the perfect idea. Harry close your eyes I want it to be a surprise." She watched and waited, "No peeking." The other chuckled as Remus placed his hand over his cubs eyes. Sophia walked back and forth in front of the wall until the door appeared. A huge smile spread across her face as she motioned them in.

"Open your eyes Harry." she whispered next to him. Harry gasped at what was in front of him. The room had turned into a tropical paradise. There in front of them was silky golden sand that met with a crystal clear blue ocean. Dotted around the beach were huge sun loungers with padded beds on top that looked extremely comfortable. Parasols were placed all around multi-coloured with giant blankets placed underneath. There were surf boards, buckets and spades, beach balls and a tropical bar in the corner. The sun was beaming down on them.

"Wow this room is amazing. I've never seen the sea before." Harry said happily bouncing in excitement. Sophia smiled at him and waved her hand transfiguring his clothes into dark blue swim trunks with golden snitches on them that floated around. Harry smiled happily at her.

"Harry come here you need sun cream this room has the exact same conditions as a normal beach." Sophia said summoning a bottle of sun cream. Harry stood dead still in front of her as she massaged it slowly into his skin making sure she covered everywhere on show. Once done he transfigured her own outfit into a small black and white poka dot bikini. She looked up as all three men drew in breaths and stared at her opened mouthed as Harry giggled quietly.

"What?" she asked them confused.

"You..." Severus stammered

"Wow" Sirius threw out.

"Beautiful" Remus said staring at her.

Sophia blushed bright red and Harry burst out laughing. "Oh no Harry don't you laugh." She said grabbing him around the waist and running towards the sea. "Noo noo Sophia I'm sorry I won't laugh ever again I promise. Please put me down." Harry begged in between laughter. Sophia paused at the edge of the sea and jumped in still holding Harry in her arms. This resulted in a half hour long tickle/water fight between the two. They were both still laughing when they flopped down onto the sand feet still dipped in the warm ocean.

Severus, Sirius and Remus all stood watching the pair having fun. "I don't know about you gentleman but I think it's about time we closed our mouths and joined in the fun." Remus said transfiguring his robes into dark red swim trunks and made his way down to the pair.

"Hey Mooney don't forget me." Sirius shouted transfiguring his own clothes into bright red flashing short before he took off running throwing himself onto Remus and shouting "Giddy up horsey" Remus quickly shoved him down onto the ground shaking his head and laughing.

Severus stood for a moment watching everyone he felt he was intruding on their private time. No one ever wanted him around so why would this time be any time be any different. Sighing he transfigured his clothes into blank shorts and went and laid on one of the huge sun loungers, reaching up he ran a hand through his silky black hair. The last few days had been hard for him and he couldn't keep his eyes off Sophia's body she was beautiful her lightly tanned skin set off beautifully with that bikini it left nothing to the imagination. He was dying to run his hands across her skin to feel her on him.

Down at the bottom of the beach Sophia smiled happily watching Harry being a kid he was running around being chased by Sirius and Remus. They finally switched to playing piggy in the middle with one of the beach balls. Sophia suddenly frowned and looked around for Severus, spotting him she watched him for a second he was half lying on the sun lounger a sad look on his face as he stared out to sea. Sighing she made her way over to him and sat down on the corner smiling at him. She handed him a bottle of sun cream which he frowned at.

"Would you mind I can't quiet reach" Sophia asked smirking on the inside she turned and lifted her hair up. She waited for him to shift closer to her and smiled.

"I..er..sure." He stuttered. _Damit Severus pull yourself together stopped acting like a fool he thought angrily_. His breath hitched slightly as he began massaging the lotion into her shoulders he heard her moan quietly and his body reacted shifting closer to her. Sophia felt like she was in heaven his hands were amazing and she just relaxed into his touches. Severus spent a good 20 minutes rubbing the lotion slowly onto her, sighing lightly when he finished he had no excuse to keep touching her now. He shifted and put his hand by his side and whispered quietly. "Done"

"That was amazing Severus do you realise how good you are at that." Sophia blushed and leant back so she was rested on his chest.

"Thank you I've never had to do that before." He said quietly breathing in her scent.

"Well I think it's only fair that I return the favour, your are extremely pale after all I wouldn't want you to burn." She said turning her head and smirking at him. Standing up she turned to face him hands on her hips, "Lie down," she commanded.

"What"? He hadn't heard that right had he she willing wanted to touch him. He stared at her.

"You heard me Sev lie on you front." She smiled sweetly at him holding back a giggle as he quickly moved so he was lying on his front head resting on a firm pillow. He sucked in a breath when she straddled him sitting on his lower back. Squeezing the lotion on to his back Sophia began slowly massaging him working out all the knots and tension he had. "Oh god," he moaned softly as her hands pushed into his shoulder blades. To the pair of them to room was extremely quiet as if it was only the two of them. Sophia smiled as she watched him under her; the little moans she heard filled her with excitement. She was happy he was relaxed and enjoying himself. Slowly she worked his lower, back, arms and she shifted and started massaging his lower legs and working her way up.

A scream tore Sophia away from her work and she quickly looked over and found Harry being tickled by Sirius and Remus as they rolled around in the sand. Sighing in relief she turned back and gasped when she locked eyes with Severus his black eyes staring up her lust clearly shining through. He smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her down next to him. "That was amazing thank you I have never felt so relaxed." Severus said looking at her fondly. If he didn't know any better he would say he was falling fast and hard for Sophia and it terrified him.

"Your welcome." She said softly resting her head against his shoulder and wished for a book to distract herself with. Severus soon copied her.

Later in the day Harry was growing hungry and made his way over to Sophia to ask about lunch. He froze in his tracks before her. There in front of him was Sophia propped up reading a book what shocked him was professor Snape was lying with his head on her lap, a book on his chest and he was smiling in his sleep as Sophia ran her hand slowly though his hair.

Looking up Sophia smiled at him, "everything ok Harry? You having a good time?"

Harry shook his head," Yes its great this room is amazing.. mmm can we have lunch yet I'm hungry?"

"Of course hun why don't you call Dobby and request a picnic and we can all sit on a blanket and eat lunch together." Sophia said

Harry run off to one of the blankets and summoned Dobby requesting all the foods he had seen people take with them on picnics he was having the best day of his life. It was perfect. He smiled happily and shouted for everyone to come grab food.

Sophia gently shock Severus trying to wake him, she laughed when his eyes flew open and he jumped up looking around.

"Lunch is ready come on." She said and dragged him over to group and sat down piling extra food onto Harry's plate and glared at him to eat.

Lunch was a noisy affair with everyone talking about how amazing there day had been so far.

After lunch Sophia had a brilliant idea. "Why don't we have a sand castle building competition winner gets to choose what the room turns into next when we have a day off." Everyone nodded in agreement to this even Severus. So over the next hour everyone quietly sat building.

Sophia eventually called time and smiled looking around at everyone ones she burst out laughing when she saw Sirius creation. He had dug a moat around his three small castles and drawled windows and doors onto them it looked like something a 5 year old did on a day at the beach. Remus had created a wolf relaxing in the sun. Severus had made a potions lab frozen with magic which made Sophia chuckle softly at it. Harry had done his best and had made a mini Hogwarts. Sophia herself had made a copy of the castle on the Island.

"Ok I think we can all agree that Severus is the winner even if he did cheat and use magic." Sophia said laughing softly.

"Hey I did not cheat you never mentioned any rules." Severus said smirking at her. Sophia threw her hands in the air in defeat.

"Hhmm how about we get the others up her for the rest of the evening and have a BBQ." Harry asked and everyone nodded in agreement.

Sophia snapped her fingers and order Dobby to collect the Weasleys, Draco, Neville, Luna, Mrs Malfoy, Madam Longbottom and Tonks.

Everyone had similar reactions to the room. The night ended happily with everyone dancing on the beach to loud music food and drinks happily being passed around.

"_Yes harry thought happily in bed later that night the day had been perfect."_

_..._

_**A/N -** I am currently trying to decide which chapter of book 3 to use to write next. Ill upload soon. Hope you enjoyed Please excuse my spelling and grammar I do try need a BETA. _


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N** – Sorry about the long wait guys I've just had alot going on personally and writing was the last thing on my mind. Im still looking for a BETA or even a co-writer. Not sure how many chapters I will be uploading tonight you will just have to wait and see

I hope you all enjoy. If you think I'm skipping to much or not adding enough detail then please let me know.

**DISCLAIMER –** JK ROWLING owns all I own nothing this is purely for my own fun and enjoyment.

...

The next morning saw everyone lounging around in the great hall. As the hall finally grew silent Sophia decided to speak up. "Right let's see who sound read next..."

"I'll read." Lupin said summoning the book over to him, but frowned once he read the chapter title.

**"CHAPTER TWELVE, The Patronus "**

Harry shivered slightly from his spot hearing the chapter title.

"We seem to have jumped again, let's see you have missed Harry receiving The Marauder's Map (_here she paused to smile at the twins who beamed back_) which is a map of the school. Also you missed Harry receiving a firebolt for his Christmas present and Hermione snitching to a teacher so that it is confiscated, so they can strip it down." Sophia stops and shakes her head at the girl.

The Quidditch fanatics were booing the girl while the adults sat muttering about the map of the school.

"Read on" Sophia spoke clearly silencing everyone.

**Harry knew that Hermione had meant well, but that didn't stop him from being angry with her. **

**He had been the owner of the best broom in the world for a few short hours, and now, because of her interference, he didn't know whether he would ever see it again. He was positive that there was nothing wrong with the Firebolt now, but what sort of state would it be in once it had been subjected to all sorts of anti-jinx tests? **

"I supposed you wouldn't have actually known how a strip would work, Potter," Minerva says, angry at herself for not explaining it better at the time.

**Ron was furious with Hermione too. As far as he was concerned, the stripping-down of a brand-new Firebolt was nothing less than criminal damage.**

**Hermione, who remained convinced that she had acted for the best, started avoiding the common room. Harry and Ron supposed she had taken refuge in the library and didn't try to persuade her to come back. **

** All in all, they were glad when the rest of the school returned shortly after New Year, and Gryffindor Tower became crowded and noisy again. Wood sought Harry out on the night before term started. **

"**Had a good Christmas?" he said, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, "I've been, doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry. After last match, you know. If the Dementors come to the next one… I mean… we can't afford you to — well —" **

"Seriously, Wood?" Someone says, shaking their head as some people sigh, not surprised at all.

**Wood broke off, looking awkward. **

The Gryffindor's shook their heads in amusement.

"**I'm working on it," said Harry quickly. "Professor Lupin said he'd train me to ward off the Dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he'd have time after Christmas." **

"**Ah," said Wood, his expression clearing. "Well, in that case — I really didn't want to lose you as Seeker, Harry. And have you ordered a new broom yet?" **

"He didn't need to it was given to him!" Draco growls slightly jealous.

Harry looks at him confused, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... I just really wanted that broom." Draco mutters back.

Harry smirks, "well I am let you take it for a spin... but what would I get in return"

Draco stares opened mouth at him. Remus meanwhile laughed quietly before starting to read on.

"**No," said Harry. **

"**What! You'd better get a move on, you know — you can't ride that Shooting Star against Ravenclaw!" **

"**He got a Firebolt for Christmas," said Ron. **

Many groans around the room could be heard, heads slamming on the tables or hands in true facepalm fashion.

"**A _Firebolt_? No! Seriously? A — a real _Firebolt_?" **

"**Don't get excited, Oliver," said Harry gloomily. "I haven't got it anymore. It was confiscated." And he explained all about how the Firebolt was now being checked for jinxes. **

"**Jinxed? How could it be jinxed?" **

"**Sirius Black," Harry said wearily. "He's supposed to be after me. So McGonagall reckons he might have sent it." **

Padfoot moaned quietly from his spot next to Harry.

**Waving aside the information that a famous murderer was after his Seeker, Wood said, "But Black couldn't have bought a Firebolt! He's on the run! The whole country's on the lookout for him! How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick?" **

Harry frowned at this, how on earth did Sirius by his broom. He shrugged thinking to asking him later when they were alone.

**"I know," said Harry, "but McGonagall still wants to strip it down —" **

**Wood went pale. **

Along with every quidditch fanatic.

"**I'll go and talk to her, Harry," he promised. "I'll make her see reason… A Firebolt… a real Firebolt, on our team… She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do… I'll make her see sense. A _Firebolt…" _**

"I did want Gryffindor to win, but not at the safety of one of my pupils!" Minerva snapped, crossing her arms.

**Classes started again the next day. The last thing anyone felt like doing was spending two hours on the grounds on a raw January morning, but Hagrid had provided a bonfire full of salamanders for their enjoyment, and they spent an unusually good lesson collecting dry wood and leaves to keep the fire blazing while the flame-loving lizards scampered up and down the crumbling, white-hot logs.**

**The first Divination lesson of the new term was much less fun; Professor Trelawney was now teaching them palmistry, and she lost no time in informing Harry that he had the shortest life line she had ever seen. **

Harry groaned.

"Don't worry hunni the old women is nothing but a fake." Sophia said smiling at him

**It was Defense Against the Dark Arts that Harry was keen to get to; after his conversation with Wood, he wanted to get started on his anti-Dementor lessons as soon as possible. **

"Why in Merlin's beard don't you show this much enthusiasm for learning in your regular classes?" Minerva groans.

Harry avoided looking at her and looked at the floor ignoring her.

Severus frowned watching him closely, making a mental not to ask the boy about it with Sophia.

"**Ah yes," said Lupin, when Harry reminded him of his promise at the end of class. "Let me see… how about eight o'clock on Thursday evening? The History of Magic classroom should be large enough… I'll have to think carefully about how we're going to do this… We can't bring a real Dementor into the castle to practice on…" **

Those who had been near a Dementor paled dramatically

"**Still looks ill, doesn't he?" said Ron as they walked down the corridor, heading to dinner. **

"**What d'you reckon's the matter with him?" **

**There was a loud and impatient "tuh" from behind them.**

Harry glared at her, "Bloody no it all."

Neville snorts hearing him

**It was Hermione, who had been sitting at the feet of a suit of armor, repacking her bag, which was so full of books it wouldn't close. **

"**And what are you tutting at us for?" said Ron irritably. **

"**Nothing," said Hermione in a lofty voice, heaving her bag back over her shoulder. **

"**Yes, you were," said Ron. "I said I wonder what's wrong with Lupin, and you —" **

"**Well, isn't it _obvious_?" said Hermione, with a look of maddening superiority. **

The teachers groaned in unison.

"I wish she wasn't such an insufferable no it all and allowed the other students to make the effort. She makes teaching a nightmare." Severus spoke quietly to her.

"Oh don't worry Sev the days she attends this school and long over." Sophia smirked at him

Severus looks at her confused, but before he could ask Remus had started reading again.

"**If you don't want to tell us, don't," snapped Ron. **

"**Fine," said Hermione haughtily, and she marched off. **

"Good riddance" Luna replied shocking those around her.

"**She doesn't know," said Ron, staring resentfully after Hermione. "She's just trying to get us to talk to her again." **

**At eight o'clock on Thursday evening, Harry left Gryffindor Tower for the History of Magic classroom. It was dark and empty when he arrived, but he lit the lamps with his wand and had waited only five minutes when Professor Lupin turned up, carrying a large packing case, which he heaved onto Professor Binn's desk. **

"**What's that?" said Harry. **

"**Another Boggart," said Lupin, stripping off his cloak. "I've been combing the castle ever since Tuesday, and very luckily, I found this one lurking inside Mr. Filch's filing cabinet.**

**It's the nearest we'll get to a real Dementor. The Boggart will turn into a Dementor when he sees you, so we'll be able to practice on him. I can store him in my office when we're not using him; there's a cupboard under my desk he'll like." **

"**Okay," said Harry, trying to sound as though he wasn't apprehensive at all and merely glad that Lupin had found such a good substitute for a real Dementor.**

"Harry, you are a horrible liar," Remus snorts as Harry blushes.

"No I'm not!"

"You really are,

"Harry but don't worry

"we will teach you our ways

"young one" Fred and George said happily to him. Harry smiled at them.

"**So…" Professor Lupin had taken out his own wand, and indicated that Harry should do the same. "The spell I am going to try and teach you is highly advanced magic, Harry — well beyond Ordinary Wizarding Level. It is called the Patronus Charm." **

**Amelia and the others sat forward during this waiting to see how he would manage. After all it was extremely difficult to manage. **

"**How does it work?" said Harry nervously. **

"**Well, when it works correctly, It conjures up a Patronus," said Lupin, "which is a kind of anti-Dementor — a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the Dementor." **

**Harry had a sudden vision of himself crouching behind a Hagrid-sized figure holding a large club.**

Laughter sounded out around the room. Harry blushed and shrugged, looking down briefly. Sophia was just smiling fondly at him.

**Professor Lupin continued, "The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive — but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it." **

Harry blushes furiously trying not think on how they will react to his at the end of the book.

"**What does a Patronus look like?" said Harry curiously. **

"**Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it." **

"**And how do you conjure it?" **

"**With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory." **

**Harry cast his mind about for a happy memory. Certainly, nothing that had happened to him at the Dursleys' was going to do. Finally, he settled on the moment when he had first ridden a broomstick. **

Sophia and Severus looked sadly at Harry who was trying to hide himself behind Draco who just looked confused.

"That child needs some happy memories in his life." Sophia muttered, Severus gripped her hand offering silent support.

"**Right," he said, trying to recall as exactly as possible the wonderful, soaring sensation of his stomach. **

"**The incantation is this —" Lupin cleared his throat. "_Expecto patronum_!" **

"**Expecto patronum," Harry repeated under his breath, "expecto patronum." **

"**Concentrating hard on your happy memory?" **

"It won't work." Sophia muttered sadly.

"**Oh — yeah —" said Harry, quickly forcing his thoughts back to that first broom ride. **

"**Expecto patrono — no, patronum — sorry — expecto patronum, expecto patronum" **

**Something whooshed suddenly out of the end of his wand; it looked like a wisp of silvery gas. **

"**Did you see that?" said Harry excitedly. "Something happened!" **

"**Very good," said Lupin, smiling. "Right, then — ready to try it on a Dementor?" **

"**Yes," Harry said, gripping his wand very tightly, and moving into the middle of the deserted classroom. He tried to keep his mind on flying, but something else kept intruding… Any second now, he might hear his mother again… but he shouldn't think that, or he _would _hear her again, and he didn't want to… or did he? **

"Oh, Harry." Draco sighs sadly putting his arms around Harry who was trying to hide from all the pitting looks he was receiving.

Severus heart clenched painfully he was still feeling guilty over his treatment.

**Lupin grasped the lid of the packing case and pulled. **

**A Dementor rose slowly from the box, its hooded face turned toward Harry, one glistening, scabbed hand gripping its cloak. The lamps around the classroom flickered and went out. The Dementor stepped from the box and started to sweep silently toward Harry, drawing a deep, rattling breath. A wave of piercing cold broke over him — **

"**_Expecto patronum_!" Harry yelled. "_Expecto patronum_! _Expecto _—" **

**But the classroom and the Dementor were dissolving… Harry was falling again through thick white fog, and his mother's voice was louder than ever, echoing inside his head — "_Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I'll do anything —" _**

Many people flinched at this line, looking down, not knowing what it was like to hear their parents dying. Well, except for Neville, who never told anyone what he heard when the Dementors were near, but Harry had guessed anyways.

"Yeah, it does." Neville admits quietly, as many turn to him if they were close.

Luna wrapped her arms around him kissing his cheek softly.

"Your parents love you Neville never forget that." She whispered to him

"**_Stand aside — stand aside, girl —" _**

"**_Harry!" _**

**Severus gasped softly he reply did ask her to move. **

**Harry jerked back to life. He was lying flat on his back on the floor. The classroom lamps were alight again. He didn't have to ask what had happened. **

"You most certainly did not," Remus interrupted himself.

"**Sorry," he muttered, sitting up and feeling cold sweat trickling down behind his glasses. **

"You need to stop apologising for things that are not your fault." Draco said,

"Sorry" Harry muttered quietly.

"Harry!" Draco cried in frustration

"**Are you all right?" said Lupin. **

**"Yes…" Harry pulled himself up on one of the desks and leaned against it. **

"**Here —" Lupin handed him a Chocolate Frog. "Eat this before we try again. I didn't expect you to do it your first time; in fact, I would have been astounded if you had." **

"I really would've been," Remus snorts interrupting himself again. Tonks pokes him in the side so he carries on.

"**It's getting worse," Harry muttered, biting off the Frog's head. "I could hear her louder that time — and him — Voldemort —" **

**Lupin looked paler than usual. **

"**Harry, if you don't want to continue, I will more than understand —" **

"**I do!" said Harry fiercely, stuffing the rest of the Chocolate Frog into his mouth. "I've got to! What if the Dementors turn up at our match against Ravenclaw? I can't afford to fall off again. If we lose this game we've lost the Quidditch Cup!" **

"What is it with men and bloody quidditch?" A few females groan as the guys laugh.

"**All right then…" said Lupin. "You might want to select another memory, a happy memory, I mean, to concentrate on… That one doesn't seem to have been strong enough…" **

**Harry thought hard and decided his feelings when Gryffindor had won the House **

**Championship last year had definitely qualified as very happy. He gripped his wand tightly again and took up his position in the middle of the classroom. **

"That's not good enough either," Amelia whispers making notes on her already long list.

Fred and George were adding Dementors to their torture the Dursleys list.

"**Ready?" said Lupin, gripping the box lid. **

"**Ready," said Harry; trying hard to fill his head with happy thoughts about Gryffindor winning, and not dark thoughts about what was going to happen when the box opened. **

"**Go!" said Lupin, pulling off the lid. The room went icily cold and dark once more. The Dementor glided forward, drawing its breath; one rotting hand was extending toward Harry — **

"**Expecto patronum!" Harry yelled. "Expecto patronum! Expecto Pat —" **

**White fog obscured his senses… big, blurred shapes were moving around him… then came a new voice, a man's voice, shouting, panicking — **

Remus sucked in a sharp breath as Tonks wraps her arms around him while he reads the next bit to the deathly quiet room.

"**_Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off —" _**

**_The sounds of someone stumbling from a room — a door bursting open — a cackle of high- pitched laughter — _**

The room stayed silent, realizing that Harry had just heard his father, heard his father's last words.

Harry's friends wrapped their arms around him offering words of comfort.

Sophia watched them smiling faintly at the love and support he was receiving. She shifted closer to Severus so she was leaning against him. He wrapped his arm around her waist shifting slightly. She sighed happily.

"**Harry! Harry… wake up…" **

**Lupin was tapping Harry hard on the face.**

**This time it was a minute before Harry understood why he was lying on a dusty classroom floor. **

"**I heard my dad," Harry mumbled. "That's the first time I've ever heard him — he tried to take on Voldemort himself, to give my mum time to run for it…" **

Draco looked at Harry feeling even more guilty for his torment.

**Harry suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Lupin wouldn't see. **

Some people snorted, Remus included as Harry blushed. Sophia chuckled at him.

"**You heard James?" said Lupin in a strange voice. **

"**Yeah…" Face dry, Harry looked up. "Why — you didn't know my dad, did you?" **

Remus sighs sadly he hated having to stay away from his cub. He glared angrily at Dumbledore before continuing to read.

"**I — I did, as a matter of fact," said Lupin. "We were friends at Hogwarts. Listen, Harry — perhaps we should leave it here for tonight. This charm is ridiculously advanced… I shouldn't have suggested putting you through this…" **

"**No!" said Harry. He got up again. "I'll have one more go! I'm not thinking of happy enough things, that's what it is… hang on…" **

**He racked his brains. A really, really happy memory… one that he could turn into a good, strong Patronus… **

**The moment when he'd first found out he was a wizard, and would be leaving the Dursleys for Hogwarts! If that wasn't a happy memory, he didn't know what was… **

"Dam right," Harry snorts, while the majority of the hall glares at Dumbledore.

**Concentrating very hard on how he had felt when he'd realized he'd be leaving Privet Drive, Harry got to his feet and faced the packing case once more. **

"**Ready?" said Lupin, who looked as though he were doing this against his better judgment. **

"Because I was," Remus mutters.

"**Concentrating hard? All right — go!" **

**He pulled off the lid of the case for the third time, and the Dementor rose out of it; the room fell cold and dark — **

"**EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harry bellowed. "EXPECTO PATRONUM! EXPECTO PATRONUM!" **

**The screaming inside Harry's head had started again — except this time, it sounded as though it were coming from a badly tuned radio — softer and louder and softer again… and he could still see the Dementor… it had halted… and then a huge, silver shadow came bursting out of the end of Harry's wand, to hover between him and the Dementor, and though Harry's legs felt like water, he was still on his feet — though for how much longer, he wasn't sure… **

"WHOO HOO!" Fred and George shout high fiving each other.

The adults stared at Harry opened mouth. How had he managed that on his third try.

Dumbledore was furious how did the brat start breaking through his blocks. He needed to plan how to escape and destroy Sophia for ruining his plans.

"**Riddikulus!" roared Lupin, springing forward. **

**There was a loud crack, and Harry's cloudy Patronus vanished along with the Dementor; he sank into a chair, feeling as exhausted as if he'd just run a mile, and felt his legs shaking. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Professor Lupin forcing the Boggart back into the packing case with his wand; it had turned into a silvery orb again. **

"**Excellent!" Lupin said, striding over to where Harry sat. "Excellent, Harry! That was definitely a start!" **

"**Can we have another go? Just one more go?" **

"**Not now," said Lupin firmly. "You've had enough for one night. Here —" **

**He handed Harry a large bar of Honeydukes' best chocolate. **

"**Eat the lot, or Madam Pomfrey will be after my blood. Same time next week?" **

"**Okay," said Harry. He took a bite of the chocolate and watched Lupin extinguishing the lamps that had rekindled with the disappearance of the Dementor. A thought had just occurred to him. **

Sophia decided to clap her hands at that moment and everyone had a chocolate frog on there laps.

Students beamed up at her.

"**Professor Lupin?" he said. "If you knew my dad, you must've known Sirius Black as well." **

**Lupin turned very quickly. **

Sophia sighed in annoyance.

"What?" Severus asked?

"I just don't understand him his instincts as a Werewolf would have told him that Sirius was innocent and he never checked. He didn't in thirteen years seek out Harry. He is spending a whole year with the boy and makes no effort. I just don't understand." She finishes entirely frustrated.

"He is a sleep very easily manipulated he always has been, he did whatever they told him to." Severus said looking at her.

"Well in that case I don't think he is a good influence around Harry." She said frowning.

"Maybe you should take a wait and see approach." Severus said.

Sophia growled and crossed her arms in a huff. Severus smirked at her smiling fondly.

"**What gives you that idea?" he said sharply. **

"**Nothing — I mean, I just knew they were friends at Hogwarts too…" Lupin's face relaxed. **

"**Yes, I knew him," he said shortly. "Or I thought I did. You'd better be off, Harry, it's getting late." **

**Padfoot growled at Remus over this. He was not happy with the man he had no excuse for not trying to bond with Harry. **

**Harry left the classroom, walking along the corridor and around a corner, then took a detour behind a suit of armor and sank down on its plinth to finish his chocolate, wishing he hadn't mentioned Black, as Lupin was obviously not keen on the subject. Then Harry's thoughts wandered back to his mother and father… **

Sophia sighed sadly.

**He felt drained and strangely empty, even though he was so full of chocolate. Terrible though it was to hear his parents' last moments replayed inside his head, these were the only times Harry had heard their voices since he was a very small child. But he'd never be able to produce a proper Patronus if he half wanted to hear his parents again… **

**"Oh Harry." Sophia muttered. **

"**They're dead," he told himself sternly. "They're dead and listening to echoes of them won't bring them back. You'd better get a grip on yourself if you want that Quidditch Cup." **

"Here here!" Someone shouts as a few people glare.

Harry chuckles wondering if Oliver had snuck into the hall.

**He stood up, crammed the last bit of chocolate into his mouth, and headed back to Gryffindor Tower. **

**Ravenclaw played Slytherin a week after the start of term. Slytherin won, though narrowly. According to Wood, this was good news for Gryffindor, who would take second place if they beat Ravenclaw too. He therefore increased the number of team practices to five a week. This meant that with Lupin's anti-Dementor classes, which in themselves were more draining than six Quidditch practices, Harry had just one night a week to do all his homework. Even so, he was not showing the strain nearly as much as Hermione, whose immense workload finally seemed to be getting to her. **

Glares were sent to the girl.

McGonagall frowned she did not want to give the girl a time turner she was entirely too young.

**Every night, without fail, Hermione was to be seen in a corner of the common room, several tables spread with books, Arithmancy charts, rune dictionaries, diagrams of Muggles lifting heavy objects, and file upon file of extensive notes; she barely spoke to anybody and snapped when she was interrupted. **

"**How's she doing it?" Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books. **

"**Doing what?" **

"**Getting to all her classes!" Ron said. "I heard her talking to Professor Vector, that Arithmancy witch, this morning. They were going on about yesterday's lesson, but Hermione can't've been there, because she was with us in Care of Magical Creatures! And Ernie McMillan told me she's never missed a Muggle Studies class, but half of them are at the same time as Divination, and she's never missed one of them either!" **

The third year and above students were looking at each other in confusion. How was the girl going to all those classes.

**Harry didn't have time to fathom the mystery of Hermione's impossible schedule at the moment; he really needed to get on with Snape's essay. Two seconds later, however, he was interrupted again, this time by Wood. **

Severus frowned listening to this. No wonder the boys work was atrocious if he was constantly being distracted. Maybe Harry would learn better with a private tutor to catch him up. He thought.

"**Bad news, Harry. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She — er — got a bit shirty with me. Told me I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first." Wood shook his head in disbelief. **

"**Honestly, the way she was yelling at me… you'd think I'd said something terrible. Then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it…" He screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall's severe voice. "As long as necessary, Wood"… I reckon it's time you ordered a new broom, Harry. There's an order form at the back of _Which Broomstick_… you could get a Nimbus Two Thousand and One, like Malfoy's got." **

"**I'm not buying anything Malfoy thinks is good," said Harry flatly. **

"Hey" Draco shouts.

Harry laughs at the outrage look on his normally blank face.

Narcissa giggled quietly behind her hand watching her son.

**January faded imperceptibly into February, with no change in the bitterly cold weather. The match against Ravenclaw was drawing nearer and nearer, but Harry still hadn't ordered a new broom. He was now asking Professor McGonagall for news of the Firebolt after every Transfiguration lesson, Ron standing hopefully at his shoulder, Hermione rushing past with her face averted. **

"It was quite a bother," Minerva snorts while the other members of staff smiled at her. Rather her than them they all thought.

"**No, Potter, you can't have it back yet," Professor McGonagall told him the twelfth time this happened, before he'd even opened his mouth. "We've checked for most of the usual curses, but Professor Flitwick believes the broom might be carrying a Hurling Hex. I shall _tell _you once we've finished checking it. Now, please stop badgering me."**

Fred and George laughed at this.

**To make matters even worse, Harry's anti-Dementor lessons were not going nearly as well as he had hoped. Several sessions on, he was able to produce an indistinct, silvery shadow every time the Boggart-Dementor approached him, but his Patronus was too feeble to drive the Dementor away. All it did was hover, like a semitransparent cloud, draining Harry of energy as he fought to keep it there. Harry felt angry with himself, guilty about his secret desire to hear his parents' voices again. **

"Harry, you had no reason to feel guilty about that," Neville whispered quietly to him. Harry nodded sadly back.

"**You're expecting too much of yourself," said Professor Lupin, sternly in their fourth week of practice. "For a thirteen-year-old wizard, even an indistinct Patronus is a huge achievement. You aren't passing out anymore, are you?" **

"**I thought a Patronus would — charge the Dementors down or something," said Harry dispiritedly. "Make them disappear —"**

"**The true Patronus does do that," said Lupin. "But you've achieved a great deal in a very short space of time. If the Dementors put in an appearance at your next Quidditch match, you will be able to keep them at bay long enough to get back to the ground." **

"**You said it's harder if there are loads of them," said Harry. **

"**I have complete confidence in you," said Lupin, smiling. "Here — you've earned a drink. Something from the Three Broomsticks. You won't have tried it before —" **

**He pulled two bottles out of his briefcase. **

"**Butterbeer!" said Harry, without thinking. "Yeah, I like that stuff!" **

"HARRY!" Fred and George had grown shaking there heads.

Harry ducks his head sheepishly.

**Lupin raised an eyebrow. **

"**Oh — Ron and Hermione brought me some back from Hogsmeade," Harry lied quickly. **

"You are an awful liar." Remus said smiling fondly.

"**I see," said Lupin, though he still looked slightly suspicious.**

"**Well — let's drink to a Gryffindor victory against Ravenclaw! Not that I'm supposed to take sides, as a teacher…" he added hastily. **

"Like that stops other teachers," Minerva snorts, Severus looks up and smirks at her while the other staff burst out laughing.

**They drank the butterbeer in silence, until Harry voiced something he'd been wondering for a while. **

"**What's under a Dementor's hood?" **

**Professor Lupin lowered his bottle thoughtfully. "Hmmm… well, the only people who really know are in no condition to tell us. You see, the Dementor lowers its hood only to use its last and worst weapon." **

"**What's that?" **

"**They call it the Dementor's Kiss," said Lupin, with a slightly twisted smile. "It's what Dementors do to those they wish to destroy utterly. I suppose there must be some kind of mouth under there, because they clamp their jaws upon the mouth of the victim and — and suck out his soul." **

**Harry accidentally spat out a bit of butterbeer. **

"A most common occurrence," Amelia sighs.

"**What — they kill —?" **

"**Oh no," said Lupin. "Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you'll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no… anything. There's no chance at all of recovery. You'll just exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever… lost." **

"One of the worst things to see, let alone hear, and no doubt, experience." Tonks whispered quietly but those around her looked at the young auror sadly nodding in agreement

**Lupin drank a little more butterbeer, then said, "It's the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the _Daily Prophet _this morning. The Ministry have given the Dementors permission to perform it if they find him." **

Sophia growls at this and Fudge pales shifting back in his seat.

Umbridge smirked to herself thinking she would love to introduce the Potter brat to the Dementors.

**Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. But then he thought of Black. **

"**He deserves it," he said suddenly. **

Sirius flinches shifting away from Harry.

"Padfoot I'm sorry I didn't mean it. I was just angry thinking you were the reason they were dead." Harry whispers running his hands through his fur.

Sirius stares at him nodding slightly before lying back down.

"**You think so?" said Lupin lightly. "Do you really think anyone deserves that?" **

"**Yes," said Harry defiantly. "For… for some things…" **

**He would have liked to have told Lupin about the conversation he'd overheard about Black in the Three Broomsticks, about Black betraying his mother and father, but it would have involved revealing that he'd gone to Hogsmeade without permission, and he knew Lupin wouldn't be very impressed by that. So he finished his butterbeer, thanked Lupin, and left the History of Magic classroom. **

**Harry half wished that he hadn't asked what was under a Dementor's hood, the answer had been so horrible, and he was so lost in unpleasant thoughts of what it would feel like to have your soul sucked out of you that he walked headlong into Professor McGonagall halfway up the stairs. **

People's eyes got wide and they sat up straighter in their seats, excitement coursing through their bodies.

"**Do watch where you're going, Potter!" **

"**Sorry, Professor —" **

"**I've just been looking for you in the Gryffindor common room, Well, here it is, we've done everything we could think of, and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it at all — you've got a very good friend somewhere, Potter…" **

Padfoot sat up straighter smiling proudly at this while Harry laughs slightly.

**Harry's jaw dropped. She was holding out his Firebolt, and it looked as magnificent as ever. **

"Yes it did!" Harry beams.

"**I can have it back?" Harry said weakly. "Seriously?" **

"**Seriously," said Professor McGonagall, and she was actually smiling. **

"**I daresay you'll need to get the feel of it before Saturday's match, won't you? And Potter —_do _try and win, won't you? Or we'll be out of the running for the eighth year in a row, as Professor Snape was kind enough to remind me only last night…" **

Severus growled.

**Speechless, Harry carried the Firebolt back upstairs toward Gryffindor Tower. As he turned a corner, he saw Ron dashing toward him, grinning from ear to ear. **

"**She gave it to you? Excellent! Listen, can I still have a go on it? Tomorrow?" **

Harry glares at the redhead making a mental note to clean his broom.

"**Yeah… anything…" said Harry, his heart lighter than it had been in a month. "You know what — we should make up with Hermione… She was only trying to help…" **

"**Yeah, all right," said Ron.**

"**She's in the common room now working — for a change." **

"How's that a change?" Several people snort

**They turned into the corridor to Gryffindor Tower and saw Neville Longbottom, pleading with Sir Cadogan, who seemed to be refusing him entrance. **

"**I wrote them down!" Neville was saying tearfully. "But I must've dropped them somewhere!" **

**"Oh Neville" his gran mother shook her head fondly.**

"**A likely tale!" roared Sir Cadogan. Then, spotting Harry and Ron: "Good even, my fine young yeomen! Come clap this loon in irons. He is trying to force entry to the chambers within!" **

"**Oh, shut up," said Ron as he and Harry drew level with Neville. **

"**I've lost the passwords!" Neville told them miserably. "I made him tell me what passwords he was going to use this week, because he keeps changing them, and now I don't know what I've done with them!" **

"Why are you even changing them so often?" Someone mutters.

"**Oddsbodkins," said Harry to Sir Cadogan, who looked extremely disappointed and reluctantly swung forward to let them into the common room. There was a sudden, excited murmur as every head turned and the next moment, Harry was surrounded by people exclaiming over his Firebolt. **

"**Where'd you get it, Harry?" **

"**Will you let me have a go?" **

"**Have you ridden it yet, Harry?" **

"**Ravenclaw'll have no chance, they're all on Cleansweep Sevens!" **

"**Can I just _hold _it, Harry?" **

**After ten minutes or so, during which the Firebolt was Passed around and admired from every angle, the crowd dispersed and Harry and Ron had a clear view of Hermione, the only person who hadn't rushed over to them, bent over her work and carefully avoiding their eyes. Harry and Ron approached her table and at last, she looked up. **

"**I got it back," said Harry, grinning at her and holding up the Firebolt. **

"**See, Hermione? There wasn't anything wrong with it!" said Ron. **

"**Well — there _might _have been!" said Hermione. "I mean, at least you know now that it's safe!" **

"Like she cared, they just needed the pay check." Harry grumbled.

"**Yeah, I suppose so," said Harry. "I'd better put it upstairs." **

"**I'll take it!" said Ron eagerly. "I've got to give Scabbers his rat tonic." **

**He took the Firebolt and, holding it as if it were made of glass, carried it away up the boys' staircase. **

"**Can I sit down, then?" Harry asked Hermione. **

Harry stared at the ground sadly he couldn't believe that they had lied to him after everything they had been through together.

"**I suppose so," said Hermione, moving a great stack of parchment off a chair. **

**Harry looked around at the cluttered table, at the long Arithmancy essay on which the ink was still glistening, at the even longer Muggle Studies essay ('Explain Why Muggles Need Electricity') and at the rune translation Hermione was now poring over. **

"**How are you getting through all this stuff?" Harry asked her. **

**"Yes how?" Several of the Ravenclaws spoke up**

"**Oh, well — you know — working hard," said Hermione. Close-up, Harry saw that she looked almost as tired as Lupin. **

Remus chuckled hearing this.

"**Why don't you just drop a couple of subjects?" Harry asked, watching her lifting books as she searched for her rune dictionary. **

"**I couldn't do that!" said Hermione, looking scandalized. **

Several of the teachers shook their head at the girl.

"**Arithmancy looks terrible," said Harry, picking up a very complicated-looking number chart. **

"**Oh no, it's wonderful!" said Hermione earnestly. "It's my favorite subject! It's —" **

"Harry its actually a good subject its very similar as math and can be use for spell creation." Sophia spoke up.

"Oh I wish I took it. Why are we not told about the different classes before we pick them? Harry asked confused.

Sophia shrugged and looked pointedly at Dumbledore while the other teachers frowned in confusion why didn't they other introduction lessons any more.

**But exactly what was wonderful about Arithmancy, Harry never found out. At that precise moment, a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase.**

"Huh?" Several people looked around in confusion

**The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder — and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet. **

"**LOOK!" he bellowed, striding over to Hermione's table. "LOOK!" he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face. **

"**Ron, what —?" **

"**SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!" **

"Okay, calm the hell down." Bill snorts as Charlie shakes his head, he could not believe that they were actually related to him.

**Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Harry looked down at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like — **

"**BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?" **

"Oh dear," The Gryffindor looked at the pair

"**N — no," said Hermione in a trembling voice. **

Sophia chuckled quietly. "I love how he fakes his death twice defiantly a rat." She whispered to Severus who laughed quietly thinking about it.

**Ron threw something down onto Hermione's rune translation. Hermione and Harry leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Remus said holding up the book.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N** – I feel bad for the wait so here's the second chapter. Let me know what you think. I may update tomorrow as well but for now I'm off to bed 6am start. Having a full time job sucks!

**Disclaimer –** I do not own Harry Potter or its world. This is just for fun. Nothing more.

...

Charlie summoned the book to himself before anyone got the chance to speak.

**"CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, Cat, Rat, and Dog" **"huh?" He asked eloquently.

"hhmm oh yes we skipped a couple." Sophia said absently. Severus chuckled at her.

"Right long story short, Severus is in a mood, Ron is still harping on about Scabbers, Buckbeak gets sentenced to death, Professor crazy makes a new prediction: "**_THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY HIS FOLLOWERS. HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS. TONIGHT, BEFORE MIDNIGHT… THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO REJOIN HIS MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANT'S AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER HE WAS. TONIGHT… BEFORE MIDNIGHT… THE SERVANT… WILL SET OUT… TO REJOIN… HIS MASTER…" _****Oh yes and the previous chapter ends with the golden trio thinking buckbeak had his head chopped off. Oh and I almost forgot Hermione punched mouth." Sophia said. **

**"What?" She asked when everyone stared at her. **

**"How dare you touch my dragon" Narcissa growls while Draco blushes furiously and Harry tries to hide his laughter. **

**Harry's mind had gone blank with shock. The three of them stood transfixed with horror under the Invisibility Cloak.**

"Poor Hagrid," Several of the students muttered.

Hagrid chose that moment to blow his nose loudly.

**The very last rays of the setting sun were casting a bloody light over the long-shadowed grounds. **

**Then, behind them, they heard a wild howling. **

"Oh, poor Hagrid," Professor Sprout mutters sadly.

"**Hagrid," Harry muttered. Without thinking about what he was doing, he made to turn back, but both Ron and Hermione seized his arms. **

"You can't, Harry." Luna mutters sadly.

"**We can't," said Ron, who was paper-white. "He'll be in worse trouble if they know we've been to see him…" **

**Hermione's breathing was shallow and uneven. **

"**How — could — they?" she choked. "How could they?" **

"Because they're horrible people," Katie Bell mutters, eyes wide in shock.

The ministry officials shift uncomfortably in the chairs from the harsh glares they were receiving. If Fudge could disappear he certainly would have.

"**Come on," said Ron, whose teeth seemed to be chattering. **

**They set off back toward the castle, walking slowly to keep themselves hidden under the cloak. The light was fading fast now. **

"Something is going to go wrong." Tonks muttered while Moody nodded proudly at her.

**By the time they reached open ground, darkness was settling like a spell around them. **

"**Scabbers, keep still," Ron hissed, clamping his hand over his chest. The rat was wriggling madly.**

"Oopps," Sophia said noticing there confusion, "They found the rat at Hagrids."

**Ron came to a sudden halt, trying to force Scabbers deeper into his pocket. "What's the matter with you, You stupid rat? Stay still — OUCH! He bit me!" **

"**Ron, be quiet!" Hermione whispered urgently. "Fudge'll be out here in a minute —" **

"**He won't — stay — put —" **

"Why won't the stupid rat stay put?" Someone from the Hufflepuff table asks quietly.

**Scabbers was plainly terrified. He was writhing with all his might, trying to break free of Ron's grip. **

"**What's the matter with him?" **

**But Harry had just seen — stinking toward them, his body low to the ground, wide yellow eyes glinting eerily in the darkness — Crookshanks.**

"Okay, there's a cat. I guess 'Scabbers' is the rat?" Fred says with a small shrug, slightly confused.

"So whos the dog?" George finishes for his brother equally confused.

**Whether he could see them or was following the sound of Scabbers's squeaks, Harry couldn't tell. **

"**Crookshanks!" Hermione moaned. "No, go away, Crookshanks! Go away!" **

**But the cat was getting nearer — **

"**Scabbers — NO!" **

**Too late — the rat had slipped between Ron's clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. In one bound, Crookshanks sprang after him, and before Harry or Hermione could stop him, Ron had thrown the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness. **

"Ronald, no!" Molly shrieks, not wanting her son to get into trouble. She pulled him closer to her while the rest of the hall glared.

"**Ron!" Hermione moaned. **

**She and Harry looked at each other, then followed at a sprint; it was impossible to run full out under the cloak; they pulled it off and it streamed behind them like a banner as they hurtled after Ron; they could hear his feet thundering along ahead and his shouts at Crookshanks. **

"This can't be good," Someone mutters.

"**Get away from him — get away — Scabbers, come here —" **

**There was a loud thud. **

"**Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat —" **

**Harry and Hermione almost fell over Ron; they skidded to a stop right in front of him. He was sprawled on the ground, but Scabbers was back in his pocket; he had both hands held tight over the quivering lump. **

"**Ron — come on back under the cloak —" Hermione panted. "Dumbledore — the Minister — they'll be coming back out in a minute —" **

**But before they could cover themselves again, before they could even catch their breath, they heard the soft pounding of gigantic paws… Something was bounding toward them, quiet as a shadow — an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog. **

**Harry reached for his wand, but too late — the dog had made an enormous leap and the front paws hit him on the chest; he keeled over backward in a whirl of hair; he felt its hot breath, saw inch-long teeth — **

Gasps could be heard around the room.

Several of the adults glanced suspiciously at the dog laying across Harry's lap.

**But the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off him. Dazed, feeling as though his ribs were broken, Harry tried to stand up; he could hear it growling as it skidded around for a new attack. **

**Ron was on his feet. As the dog sprang back toward them he pushed Harry aside;**

" -** the dog's jaws fastened instead around Ron's outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward, he seized a handful of the brute's hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll — **

**Then, out of nowhere, something hit Harry so hard across the face he was knocked off his feet again. He heard Hermione shriek with pain and fall too. **

Neville, Draco & Luna all look at Harry in concern.

"Don't worry guys I was fine." Harry mutters quietly.

**Harry groped for his wand, blinking blood out of his eyes **

"Oh, not good." Lavender whispered to Pavarti biting her nails nervously..

"**Lumos!" he whispered. **

**The wandlight showed him the trunk of a thick tree; they had chased Scabbers into the shadow of the Whomping Willow and its branches were creaking as though in a high wind, whipping backward and forward to stop them going nearer. **

**And there, at the base of the trunk, was the dog, dragging Ron backward into a large gap in the roots — Ron was fighting furiously, but his head and torso were slipping out of sight — **

Molly was shooting death glares at Sirius if looks could kill he would be burning alive right now.

"**Ron!" Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again. **

**All they could see now was one of Ron's legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground — but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot;**

Several people grimaced hearing this.

**Ron's leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight. **

"**Harry — we've got to go for help —" Hermione gasped; she was bleeding too; the Willow had cut her across the shoulder. **

"I still think those to deserve the pain." Draco mutters glaring at them.

"**No! That thing's big enough to eat him; we haven't got time —" **

"**Harry — we're never going to get through without help —" **

**Another branch whipped down at them, twigs clenched like knuckles. **

"**If that dog can get in, we can," Harry panted, darting here and there, trying to find a way through the vicious, swishing branches, but he couldn't get an inch nearer to the tree roots without being in range of the tree's blows. **

"Oh god, so close," Bill mutters totally engrossed in the story forgetting this had actually happeed.

"**Oh, help, help," Hermione whispered frantically, dancing uncertainly on the spot, "Please…" **

**Crookshanks darted forward.**

**He slithered between the battering branches like a snake and placed his front paws upon a knot on the trunk. **

**Abruptly, as though the tree had been turned to marble, it stopped moving. Not a leaf twitched or shook. **

"**Crookshanks!" Hermione whispered uncertainly. She now grasped Harry's arm painfully hard. "How did he know —?" **

"**He's friends with that dog," said Harry grimly. "I've seen them together. Come on — and keep your wand out —" **

"Smart move, Potter." Moody said nodding in approval. Harry smiles at him shyly. The man still terrified him.

**They covered the distance to the trunk in seconds, but before they had reached the gap in the roots, Crookshanks had slid into it with a flick of his bottlebrush tail. Harry went next; he crawled forward, headfirst, and slid down an earthy slope to the bottom of a very low tunnel. **

**Crookshanks was a little way along, his eyes flashing in the light from Harry's wand. Seconds later, Hermione slithered down beside him. **

"**Where's Ron?" she whispered in a terrified voice. **

"**This way," said Harry, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks. **

"**Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly from behind him. **

"**I don't know… It's marked on the Marauder's Map but Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it… It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade…" **

Fred and George shift forward listening in interest they had always wondered where this led.

**They moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshanks's tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on went the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes… All Harry could think of was Ron and what the enormous dog might be doing to him… He was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch… **

**And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Ahead Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening. **

"Oh, he's there!" Remus mutters thinking back to that night.

**He and Hermione paused, gasping for breath, edging forward. Both raised their wands to see what lay beyond. **

**It was a room, a very disordered, dusty room. Paper was peeling from the walls; there were stains all over the floor; every piece of furniture was broken as though somebody had smashed it. The windows were all boarded up. **

**Harry glanced at Hermione, who looked very frightened but nodded. **

**Harry pulled himself out of the hole, staring around. The room was deserted, but a door to their right stood open, leading to a shadowy hallway. Hermione suddenly grabbed Harry's arm again. Her wide eyes were traveling around the boarded windows. **

"It was really creepy in there!" Hermione shudders whispering to Ron next to her. She was entirely furious with the situation she now faced herself in. Why couldn't he just do as he was told none of this would be happening. A small part of her remembered that Harry was her first true friend. She pushed that thought away though she didn't need friends she wanted knowledge and power.

"**Harry," she whispered, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack." **

**Harry looked around. His eyes fell on a wooden chair near them. Large chunks had been torn out of it; one of the legs had been ripped off entirely. **

"**Ghosts didn't do that," he said slowly. **

"No shit," Someone chuckles, shaking their head.

**At that moment, there was a creak overhead. Something had moved upstairs. Both of them looked up at the ceiling. Hermione's grip on Harry's arm was so tight he was losing feeling in his fingers. He raised his eyebrows at her; she nodded again and let go. **

**Quietly as they could, they crept out into the hall and up the crumbling staircase. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a wide shiny stripe had been made by something being dragged upstairs. **

** They reached the dark landing. **

"**Nox," they whispered together, and the lights at the end of their wands went out.**

"Its a wonder why she betrayed him when they seem so in synch like true best friends." Neville muttered.

"Does seem strange." Lune replied frowning.

"**Only one door was open. As they crept toward it, they heard movement from behind it; a low moan, and then a deep, loud purring. They exchanged a last look, a last nod. **

**Wand held tightly before him, Harry kicked the door wide open. **

**On a magnificent four-poster bed with dusty hangings lay Crookshanks, purring loudly at the sight of them. **

**On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron. **

**Harry and Hermione dashed across to him. **

"**Ron — are you okay?" **

"**Where's the dog?" **

"**Not a dog," Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain. "Harry, it's a trap —" **

Many people leaned forwarded in anticipation.

"**What —" **

"**He's the dog… he's an Animagus." **

**Ron was staring over Harry's shoulder. Harry wheeled around. With a snap, the man in the shadows closed the door behind them. **

**A mass of filthy, matted hair hung to his elbows. **

"Attractive," Fred snorted

**If eyes hadn't been shining out of the deep, dark sockets, he might have been a corpse.**

"Ill' fight you for him Freddie." George smirked.

**The waxy skin was stretched so tightly over the bones of his face, it looked like a skull.**

"Oh no he is defiantly all mine." Fred replied.

**His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black. **

"**Expelliarmus!" he croaked, pointing Ron's wand at them. **

**Harry's and Hermione's wands shot out of their hands, high in the air, and Black caught them. Then he took a step closer. His eyes were fixed on Harry. **

"**I thought you'd come and help your friend," he said hoarsely. **

"You were right," Harry snorts

Amelia looks over at Harry and the Dog knowing now who was. She was confused though why was Moody not reacting... unless he knew.

**His voice sounded as though he had long since lost the habit of using it. **

"**Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you not to run for a teacher. I'm grateful… it will make everything much easier…" **

**The taunt about his father rang in Harry's ears as though Black had bellowed it. **

**A boiling hate erupted in Harry's chest, leaving no place for fear.**

Harry leant down and whispered sorry to Sirius

**For the first time in his life, he wanted his wand back in his hand, not to defend himself, but to attack… to kill. **

Sophia smiled at him.

"I was angry!" He mutters, shrugging.

**Without knowing what he was doing, he started forward, but there was a sudden movement on either side of him and two pairs of hands grabbed him and held him back…"No, Harry!" Hermione gasped in a petrified whisper; Ron, however, spoke to Black. **

"**If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" he said fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was draining him of still more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke. **

**Something flickered in Black's shadowed eyes. **

Sirius growled at the pair of them. He couldn't believe how much like Peter they turned out to be.

"**Lie down," he said quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more." **

"Aw, Sirius." Remus snorts.

"**Did you hear me?" Ron said weakly, though he was clinging painfully to Harry to stay upright. "You'll have to kill all three of us!" **

"**There'll be only one murder here tonight," said Black, and his grin widened. **

"Yes, please, continue to make it sound like you want to kill Harry," Remus snorted quietly.

If a dog could look sheepish Sirius was doing just that.

"**Why's that?" Harry spat, trying to wrench himself free of Ron, and Hermione. "Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew… What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?" **

Sirius shudders slightly

"**Harry!" Hermione whimpered. "Be quiet!" **

"**HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared, and with a huge effort he broke free of Hermione's and Ron's restraint and lunged forward — **

Many people stared at Harry in shock.

**He had forgotten about magic — he had forgotten that he was short and skinny and thirteen, whereas Black was a tall, full-grown man — all Harry knew was that he wanted to hurt Black as badly as he could and that he didn't care how much he got hurt in return — **

"Harry, you're so self-sacrificing," Severus shakes his head.

Harry blushes

**Perhaps it was the shock of Harry doing something so stupid, but Black didn't raise the wands in time** — **one of Harry's hands fastened over his wasted wrist, forcing the wand tips away; the knuckles of Harry's other hand collided with the side of Black's head and they fell, backward, into the wall — **

**Hermione was screaming; Ron was yelling; there was a blinding flash as the wands in Black's hand sent a jet of sparks into the air that missed Harry's face by inches;**

**Harry felt the shrunken arm under his fingers twisting madly, but he clung on, his other hand punching every part of Black it could find. **

**But Black's free hand had found Harry's throat **

Sophia glares and sends a mild stinging hex at Sirius who yelps.

Severus stared at Sophia if he had any doubts at her they were gone with that action right there.

"**No," he hissed, "I've waited too long —" **

"For what?" Someone mutters as people agree.

**The fingers tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew. **

**Then he saw Hermione's foot swing out of nowhere. Black let go of Harry with a grunt of pain; Ron had thrown himself on Black's wand hand and Harry heard a faint clatter — **

"Attack!" Someone yells as the hall broke out in to laughter.

**He fought free of the tangle of bodies and saw his own wand rolling across the floor; he threw himself toward it but **

"**Argh!" **

**Crookshanks had joined the fray; both sets of front claws had sunk themselves deep into Harry's arm; Harry threw him off, but Crookshanks now darted toward Harry's wand — **

"**NO YOU DON'T!" roared Harry, and he aimed a kick at Crookshanks that made the cat leap aside, spitting; Harry snatched up his wand and turned — **

"**Get out of the way!" he shouted at Ron and Hermione. **

**They didn't need telling twice.**

Harry glared at them furiously.

**Hermione, gasping for breath, her lip bleeding, scrambled aside, snatching up her and Ron's wands. Ron crawled to the four-poster and collapsed onto it, panting, his white face now tinged with green, both hands clutching his broken leg. **

**Black was sprawled at the bottom of the wall. His thin chest rose and fell rapidly as he watched **

**Harry walking slowly nearer, his wand pointing straight at Black's heart. **

"**Going to kill me, Harry?" he whispered. **

Remus shook his head sadly Azkaban had really done a number on his friend.

**Harry stopped right above him, his wand still pointing at Black's chest, looking down at him. A livid bruise was rising around Black's left eye and his nose was bleeding. **

"**You killed my parents," said Harry, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady. **

**Black stared up at him out of those sunken eyes. **

"**I don't deny it," he said very quietly.**

"SIRIUS BLACK IT WAS NOT YOUR FAULT." Sophia glared at him.

Padfoot shuffled back and hid behind Harry while the rest of the hall looked on in confusion at who she was shouting at.

"**But if you knew the whole story." **

"Tell us!" People shouted

"**The whole story?" Harry repeated, a furious pounding in his ears. "You sold them to Voldemort. That's all I need to know." **

"**You've got to listen to me," Black said, and there was a note of urgency in his voice now. **

"**You'll regret it if you don't… You don't understand…" **

"**I understand a lot better than you think," said Harry, and his voice shook more than ever. **

"**You never heard her, did you? My mum… trying to stop Voldemort killing me… and you did that… you did it…" **

**Sirius moans quietly remembering those chapters. Harry runs his hands slowly through his fur. **

**Before either of them could say another word, something ginger streaked past Harry; **

**Crookshanks leapt onto Black's chest and settled himself there, right over Black's heart. Black blinked and looked down at the cat. **

"**Get off," he murmured, trying to push Crookshanks off him. **

**But Crookshanks sank his claws into Black's robes and wouldn't shift. He turned his ugly, squashed face to Harry and looked up at him with those great yellow eyes. To his right, Hermione gave a dry sob. **

**Harry stared down at Black and Crookshanks, his grip tightening on the wand. So what if he had to kill the cat too? It was in league with Black… If it was prepared to die, trying to protect Black, that wasn't Harry's business… If Black wanted to save it, that only proved he cared more for Crookshanks than for Harry's parents… **

**Harry raised the wand. Now was the moment to do it. Now was the moment to avenge his mother and father. He was going to kill Black. He had to kill Black. This was his chance… **

Sophia snorted, "Harry is clearly not a killer."

Severus just looked at her weirdly.

**The seconds lengthened. And still Harry stood frozen there, wand poised, Black staring up at him, Crookshanks on his chest. Ron's ragged breathing came from near the bed; Hermione was quite silent. **

**And then came a new sound — **

**Muffled footsteps were echoing up through the floor — someone was moving downstairs. **

"**WE'RE UP HERE!" Hermione screamed suddenly. "WE'RE UP HERE — SIRIUS BLACK — QUICK!" **

Lune shakes her head muttering about idiots drawing more danger to themselves.

**Black made a startled movement that almost dislodged Crookshanks; Harry gripped his wand convulsively — ****_Do it now! _****said a voice in his head — but the footsteps were thundering up the stairs and Harry still hadn't done it. **

**The door of the room burst open in a shower of red sparks and Harry wheeled around as Professor Lupin came hurtling into the room, his face bloodless, his wand raised and ready. His eyes flickered over Ron, lying on the floor, over Hermione, cowering next to the door, to Harry, standing there with his wand covering Black, and then to Black himself, crumpled and bleeding at Harry's feet. **

"**_Expelliarmus!" _****Lupin shouted. **

**Harry's wand flew once more out of his hand; so did the two Hermione was holding. Lupin caught them all deftly, then moved into the room, staring at Black, who still had Crookshanks lying protectively across his chest. **

The students all gasped in shock. The adults looked at Remus in confusion who was staring at the floor.

**Harry stood there, feeling suddenly empty. He hadn't done it. His nerve had failed him. Black was going to be handed back to the Dementors. Then Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice. **

"**Where is he, Sirius?" **

"WHAT?" Everyone in the hall shouted.

**Harry looked quickly at Lupin. He didn't understand what Lupin meant. Who was Lupin talking about? He turned to look at Black again. **

**Black's face was quite expressionless. For a few seconds, he didn't move at all. Then, very slowly, he raised his empty hand and pointed straight at Ron. Mystified, Harry glanced around at Ron, who looked bewildered. **

"We're all a little bewildered, here." Someone mutters.

"**But then…" Lupin muttered, staring at Black so intently it seemed he was trying to read his mind, "… why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless" — Lupin's eyes suddenly widened, as though he was seeing something beyond Black, something none of the rest could see, "— unless he was the one… unless you switched… without telling me?" **

**Very slowly, his sunken gaze never leaving Lupin's face, Black nodded. **

"**Professor," Harry interrupted loudly, "what's going on —?" **

"Yeah, what's going on?" People question

**But he never finished the question, because what he saw made his voice die in his throat. **

**Lupin was lowering his wand, gazing fixed at Black. The Professor walked to Black's side, seized his hand, pulled him to his feet so that Crookshanks fell to the floor, and embraced Black like a brother. **

**Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. **

Harry frowned in confusion.

"**I DON'T BELIEVE IT!" Hermione screamed. **

**Lupin let go of Black and turned to her. She had raised herself off the floor and was pointing at Lupin, wild-eyed. "You — you —" **

"Were clearly in shock," Neville chuckles amused at this development.

"**Hermione —" **

"– **you and him!" **

"Sirius and Remus sitting in a tree,

" NG,

FIRST COMES LOVE

SECONG COMES MARRIAGE

FIRST COMES HUMPIG LIKE WILD RABBITS."

Fred and George sang happily. The rooms burst out laughing clearing the tension, while Remus glared at the pair.

Severus was holding onto Sophia laughing silently.

"**Hermione, calm down —" **

"**I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked. "I've been covering up for you —" **

"**Hermione, listen to me, please" Lupin shouted. "I can explain —" **

"Please do so!" Amelia says, sitting straighter notebook and pen staring at the dog.

**Harry could feel himself shaking, not with fear, but with a fresh wave of fury. **

"**I trusted you," he shouted at Lupin, his voice wavering, out of control, "and all the time you've been his friend!" **

"**You're wrong," said Lupin. "I haven't been Sirius's friend, but I am now — Let me explain…" **

"**NO!" Hermione screamed. "Harry, don't trust him, he's been helping Black get into the castle, he wants you dead too — he's a werewolf!" **

Many people snorted at this

Remus glared at her, "I would never harm my cub"

**There was a ringing silence. Everyone's eyes were now on Lupin, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale. **

"**Not at all up to your usual standard, Hermione," he said. "Only one out of three, I'm afraid. I have not been helping Sirius get into the castle and I certainly don't want Harry dead." An odd shiver passed over his face. "But I won't deny that I am a werewolf." **

**Ron made a valiant effort to get up again but fell back with a whimper of pain.**

**Lupin made toward him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, "Get away from me, werewolf!" **

"Ron!" Neville, Luna & the good Weasleys shout at him.

He shrugs glaring at the book not caring it was true filthy Werewolf.

**Lupin stopped dead. Then, with an obvious effort, he turned to Hermione and said, "How long have you known?" **

"**Ages," Hermione whispered. "Since I did Professor Snape's essay…" **

Severus smirked at that least one of the idiots had figured it out.

"**He'll be delighted," said Lupin coolly.**

"**He assigned that essay hoping someone would realize what my symptoms meant… Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was always ill at the full moon? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?" **

"**Both," Hermione said quietly. **

**Lupin forced a laugh. **

"**You're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met, Hermione." **

"Students throughout the room groaned hearing this.

While Hermione beamed she loved lording over people how smart she was.

"**I'm not," Hermione whispered. "If I'd been a bit cleverer, I'd have told everyone what you are!" **

"**But they already know," said Lupin. "At least, the staff do." **

"That's very true, as many of us were around when Remus was a student here," Minerva mutters.

Professor Flitwick nodded in agreement to this statement

"**Dumbledore hired you when he knew you were a werewolf," Ron gasped. "Is he mad?" **

"Yes!" Many people shout. Sophia nodding along in agreement

"**Some of the staff thought so," said Lupin. "He had to work very hard to convince certain teachers that I'm trustworthy —" **

"**AND HE WAS WRONG!" Harry yelled. "YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!" **

**He was pointing at Black, who suddenly crossed to the four-poster bed and sank onto it, his face hidden in one shaking hand.**

**Crookshanks leapt up beside him and stepped onto his lap, purring. **

"I think Sirius has a girlfriend. What do you think cat/dog babies would look like?" Harry asks Draco pretending to be serious.

"hhmm I'm not sure but I wouldn't mind finding out." He replied, both turned to the dog who whimpered and tried shifting away.

**Ron edged away from both of them, dragging his leg. "I have not been helping Sirius," said Lupin. "If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look —" **

**He separated Harry's, Ron's and Hermione's wands and threw each back to its owner; Harry caught his, stunned. **

.

"**There," said Lupin, sticking his own wand back into his belt "You're armed, we're not. Now will you listen?" **

"Not like they had a choice." Someone mutters

**Harry didn't know what to think. Was it a trick? **

"Probably not, kiddo." James laughs.

"**If you haven't been helping him," he said, with a furious glance at Black, "how did you know he was here?" **

"Good question," Amelia said frowning.

"**The map," said Lupin. "The Marauder's Map. I was in my office examining it —" **

"How did you know how to work it?" Fred and George gasp, as Harry snorts.

"**You know how to work it?" Harry said suspiciously. **

"**Of course I know how to work it," said Lupin, waving his hand impatiently.**

"**I helped write it. I'm Moony — that was my friends' nickname for me at school." **

Fred and George jumped up and started bowing,

"We are not worthy,

Please teach us your ways great one."

The staff groaned several banging their heads on the table.

"**You wrote —?" **

"**The important thing is,"**

"**I was watching it carefully this evening, because I had an idea that you, Ron, and Hermione might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I?" **

**He had started to pace up and down, looking at them. Little patches of dust rose at his feet. **

"**You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry—" **

"**How d'you know about the cloak?" **

"**The number of times I saw James disappearing under it…" said Lupin, waving an impatient hand again.**

"But how?" Someone whimpers, curiosity killing everyone.

"**The point is, even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the Marauder's Map. I watched you cross the grounds and enter Hagrid's hut. Twenty minutes later, you left Hagrid, and set off back toward the castle. But you were now accompanied by somebody else." **

"**What?" said Harry. "No, we weren't!" **

Everyone looked around confused thinking the professor had lost his marbles.

"**I couldn't believe my eyes," said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry's interruption. "I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?" **

"**No one was with us!" said Harry. **

"**And then I saw another dot, moving fast toward you, labeled Sirius Black… I saw him collide with you; I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow —" **

"But he only pulled Ron into the Whomping Willow!" Many people shout.

"**One of us!" Ron said angrily. **

"**No, Ron," said Lupin. "Two of you." **

**He had stopped his pacing, his eyes moving over Ron. **

"**Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he said evenly. **

"What, why?" Percy interrupts looking around in confusion. What had he old rat got to do with anything.

"**What?" said Ron. "What's Scabbers got to do with it?" **

"**Everything," said Lupin. "Could I see him, please?" **

**Ron hesitated, then put a hand inside his robes. Scabbers emerged, thrashing desperately;**

**Ron had to seize his long bald tail to stop him escaping. Crookshanks stood up on Black's leg and made a soft hissing noise. **

**Lupin moved closer to Ron. He seemed to be holding his breath as he gazed intently at Scabbers. **

"**What?" Ron said again, holding Scabbers close to him, looking scared. "What's my rat got to do with anything?" **

"**That's not a rat," croaked Sirius Black suddenly. **

"**What d'you mean — of course he's a rat —" **

"**No, he's not," said Lupin quietly. "He's a wizard." **

"**An Animagus," said Black, "by the name of Peter Pettigrew."**

The room remained quiet after that sentence,

Charlie snapped the book closed snapping people out of their thoughts. "That's the end."

"Lets have lunch" Sophia said.


End file.
